Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Local Government: Contracts

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2023 to Question 1396 on Local Government: Standards, which local authorities were identified as potentially in need of a review under the tender for the provision of external assurance reviews of local authorities, reference 2022/S 000-024515, published on 1 September 2022.

Simon Hoare: As the answer to Question UIN1396 set out, the contract referenced provides for the provision of external assurance reviews of local authorities in support of DLUHC's role as steward of the local government sector and Local Government Accountability Framework.The referenced number of reviews, a minimum of six and maximum of 32, as per the referenced document CPD4124050 was an anticipated requirement given the demand led nature of the work.The contract award notice is published here. Spend against the contract is published here as part of normal Departmental transparency requirements.The Government has been transparent about the outcome of reviews and, for example, published previous reviews linked to requests for Exceptional Financial Support on Gov.uk.

Levelling Up Fund

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's guidance entitled Levelling Up Fund Round 3: explanatory and methodology note on the decision-making process, published on 20 November 2023, whether any projects that scored 74.25 or above did not qualify for funding as a result of the cap on regeneration projects outside priority areas by local authority or ILT1 area.

Jacob Young: The Government has published an explanatory and methodology note which sets out the decision-making process for selecting successful bids for Round 3 of the Levelling Up Fund. As set out in paragraph 15 ‘projects were capped at one per local authority and four per ITL1 region. These were selected in score order, except for in ITL1 regions where ITL2 distribution could be maximised, where an additional cap of one project per ITL2 in this stage was introduced to improve regional spread’. A threshold of above 74.25 for scores was applied in England and Wales, and 72.25 in Scotland, with further requirements set out in the note.

UK Shared Prosperity Fund

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which UK Shared Prosperity Fund projects have been selected for randomised controlled trials as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund evaluation strategy.

Jacob Young: We have recently concluded the feasibility stage of our randomised controlled trials programme, and have selected a local authority to develop trial proposals with. We will publish further details as part of wider updates to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) evaluation strategy in due course.Randomised controlled trials are just one part of the UKSPF evaluation, which will involve many local authorities across all parts of the UK. The UKSPF evaluation will utilise impact, process and value for money evaluation at the intervention level, as well as deep-dive case studies at the local authority level to help build a detailed understanding of how well the UKSPF has delivered for places.

Regional Planning and Development: Northern Ireland

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Levelling Up of 20 November 2023, Official report, column 33, what his Department's policy is on levelling up in Northern Ireland in the absence of the Northern Ireland Executive.

Jacob Young: As part of our commitment to levelling up, we want to work with a restored Executive to find the best approach to supporting people in Northern Ireland, taking account of current budget pressures.

Emergencies

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what meetings his Department has had with (a) devolved mayoral authorities and (b) local authorities on national resilience in the last 12 months.

Jacob Young: The Department engages routinely with local authorities as integral partners (designated as Category 1 responders alongside emergency services in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004) in the 38 Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) in England. DLUHC support LRFs to plan for the risks their area faces, to prepare through training and exercising and during response and recovery. Engagement with devolved mayoral authorities varies according to the powers agreed with each authority.

Building Regulations: Fire Prevention

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference his Department's workplan for a technical review of the fire safety guidance provided in Approved Document B, when he plans to publish an update on progress of the property protection workstream.

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's workplan for a technical review of the fire safety guidance provided in Approved Document B, when he plans to publish an update on progress of the trigger heights and thresholds workstream.

Lee Rowley: The Technical Review of Approved Document B was published on 6 June 2022. Research on the property protection workstream has been completed; research commissioned under the trigger heights and thresholds workstream is nearing completion. Government will consider findings and will publish the research and an update on the workstream in due course.

Housing: Planning

Sir Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure that new homes are built in areas subject to a ban on residential development solely due to a nearby river catchment having excess phosphates in the water; and if he will differentiate developments already the subject of planning applications approvals from proposals not yet submitted.

Lee Rowley: The Government was very disappointed with the decision of the House of Lords voting against proposals that would have unlocked over 100,000 homes.Given that they have, the responsible approach is to look at alternative ways in which we can ensure that people still have the opportunity of home ownership and a roof over their heads, whilst still being good stewards of the environment (as, indeed, the legislation was previously trying to do). As a result, we are, for now, focusing on making progress within the existing legal framework, keeping us on track to meet our manifesto commitment to build one million homes over this Parliament. This includes making available £110 million through the Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund and to help planning authorities in affected areas deliver tens of thousands more homes before the end of the decade.Provisions in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act mean that local planning authorities and developers will assume that wastewater treatment work upgrades will be completed by 2030 and should factor that assumption into any relevant decision-making for the purposes of an assessment under the Habitats Regulations. This will benefit both new applications and developments already approved.Further details of the Government’s measures to address the challenge of nutrient neutrality can be found – www.gov.uk/guidance/nutrient-neutrality-update.

Land Registry: Blockchain

Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Answer of 26 October 2023 to Question 204013 on Land Registry, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of using blockchain technology when digitising the land registry.

Lee Rowley: HM Land Registry’s (HMLR’s) Digital Street research and development programme carried out a successful research piece and prototype into Blockchain technologies in 2020 and a summary of the research work can be found here.

House of Commons Commission

House of Commons: Telephone Systems

John Spellar: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, what assessment the Commission has made of the adequacy of the telephony system on the parliamentary estate.

Sir Charles Walker: The telephone system on the parliamentary estate is the subject of a transformative programme called the Voice Programme, and a new telephony system is due to be implemented in 2024. Modernisation of the telephony system to full Voice Over Internet Protocol is also required in preparation for the decommissioning of the analogue service provided through the Public Switched Network.

Department of Health and Social Care

Tomography: Finance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department (a) has made and (b) plans to make of the adequacy the funding of diagnostic imaging equipment.

Andrew Stephenson: At the 2021 Spending Review, £2.3 billion was awarded to transform diagnostic services over the next three years. Most of this will help deliver our ambition to increase the number of Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, expanding and protecting elective planned diagnostic services. Funding will also provide additional diagnostic equipment to increase imaging capacity in acute settings, as well as increasing capacity for endoscopy and mammography screening, and improving digital diagnostics.On 31 October 2023, the previous Secretary of State committed to publishing updated data on the number of MRI and CT scanners operational across the NHS in England. This publication is expected in the coming months.We continue to work with NHS England to understand the demand for imaging services, as well as wider diagnostic demand.

Clinical Commissioning Groups and Integrated Care Boards: Expenditure

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what total health spending was in each (a) integrated care board in the most recent year for which data is available and (b) clinical commissioning group in each year since 1997.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Lung Diseases: Electronic Cigarettes

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of hospital admissions there have been as a result of lung injuries related to e-cigarette or vaping product usage in each of the last 10 years.

Andrea Leadsom: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Databases

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who will own the intellectual property for the Federated Data Platform.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Pharmacy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS centres for dental development, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of NHS centres for pharmacy development.

Andrea Leadsom: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Breast Cancer: Screening

Gill Furniss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help ensure women who use wheelchairs have access to mammograms.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Gender Dysphoria

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Consultation report for the interim service specification for specialist gender incongruence services for children and young people published by NHS England on 9 June 2023, if she will provide a definition of the term early-onset gender dysphoria.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Dental Services: Cornwall

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of NHS dental provision in Cornwall.

Andrea Leadsom: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Pharmacy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she has taken to evaluate the impact of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme on pharmacies.

Andrea Leadsom: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Databases

Mr David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the letter from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care to the Chair of the Health and Social Care on NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) dated 30 August 2023, what the benefits are for each trust participating in the FDP pilot programme.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Pharmacy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework 5-year deal at ensuring that community pharmacies are viable; and whether she plans to renew that Framework.

Andrea Leadsom: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Health Services

Mr David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the letter from Lord Markham, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, to the Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, dated 30 August 2023, which are the 36 NHS trusts said in that letter to be participating in NHS England’s pilot programmes on improving elective care coordination for patients and care coordination solution.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Pharmacy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the hub and spoke model for dispensing pharmaceutical products.

Andrea Leadsom: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Health Services

Mr David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the letter from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care to the Chair of the Health and Social Care on NHS Federated Data Platform dated 30 August 2023, which 24 NHS trusts are actively realising benefits from the Improving Elective Care Coordination for Patients and Care Coordination Solution programmes.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Radiology: Telemedicine

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, many and what proportion of patients receiving teleradiology scans carried out by overseas companies were scans carried out more than once in the last 12 months.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Health Services: Women

Mrs Sharon Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase (a) awareness among and (b) training for primary healthcare professionals of menstrual health conditions.

Maria Caulfield: The Women’s Health Strategy sets out our ambitions for all healthcare professionals to be well informed about women’s health and supported to provide women with the best care possible. We are investing £25 million in women’s health hubs to improve women’s access to essential services for menstrual problems and more.Women’s health is a core competency for general practitioners (GPs) and is included in the Royal College of General Practitioners’ (RCGP) curriculum for trainee GPs. The RCGP has developed a ‘Women’s Health Library’, drawing together educational resources and guidelines on women’s health, which is regularly updated so primary healthcare professionals have the most up-to-date information for their patients.Additionally, the General Medical Council will introduce the Medical Licensing Assessment from the academic year 2024/2025, including several women’s health-related topics such as menstrual problems, encouraging a better understanding of menstrual health problems for doctors starting their careers.NHS England recently published a decision support tool for managing heavy periods, which is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/decision-support-tool-making-a-decision-about-managing-heavy-periods/This tool can be used by patients to prepare for their appointment and during their appointment with a healthcare professional.

NHS: Databases

Mr David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made an assessment of the value for money of the Federated Data Platform contract and (b) the extent to which FDP procurement complies with the guidance entitled Managing public money.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Radiology: Telemedicine

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of patients receiving teleradiology scans in NHS settings were scans carried out more than once in the last 12 months.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Dental Services

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2023 to Question 1862 on Dental Services: Easington, what data her Department holds on levels of access to NHS dental care.

Andrea Leadsom: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Tuberculosis: Disease Control

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to utilise the domestic life science sector to help end global levels of tuberculosis by 2030.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Dentistry: Training

Mr Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help increase dentistry training places.

Andrea Leadsom: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Drugs: Licensing

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many licence applications for (a) plant-based and (b) alcohol-free medicines the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency received in each of the last five years.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Staff

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of NHS staff who have (a) no savings, (b) savings of less than £100 and (c) savings equivalent to less than (i) one and (ii) three month's salary.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

NHS: Databases

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Federated Data Platform will be able to be accessed for commercial purposes.

Andrew Stephenson: The provider of the Federated Data Platform software will be prohibited from selling, and unable to sell, data.

Domestic Abuse: Sexual Assault Referral Centres

Jess Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 8 June 2022 to Question 11698 on Domestic Abuse: Sexual Assault Referral Centres, whether NHS England has completed its review of service provision to determine whether forensic and medical interventions for non-fatal strangulation should form part of the core offer for sexual assault referral centres.

Maria Caulfield: The National Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) Service Specification as reviewed and updated in June 2023 now reflects the offence of non-fatal strangulation. The specification states ‘Appropriate medical and forensic interventional support is provided to all service users presenting with sexual assault and/or sexual abuse where the presenting need also indicates non-fatal strangulation.’ It also references the Institute for Addressing Strangulation guidelines. From April 2024, all SARCs will collect data on incidences of non-fatal strangulation where it is part of a sexual assault/rape and thus has necessitated attendance at a SARC.

Mental Health Services: Autism and Learning Disability

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she expects the Adult Senior Intervenors pilot project evaluation report to be published.

Maria Caulfield: The Adult Senior Intervenors project, initially funded until March 2022, has been extended to ensure those individuals who have a Senior Intervenor continue receiving an intervention. Following the successful impacts of the model, NHS England is now working to embed the approach in a sustainable way across England. This has been supported by the evaluation. We do not intend to publish an evaluation report.

Pharmacy: Vacancies

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she plans to take to help pharmacies manage workforce shortages.

Andrea Leadsom: We have committed £645 million in additional funding to expand the role of community pharmacy, on top of the £2.6 billion we provide every year to the sector and the £100 million one-off investment we made in September 2022.The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, backed by over £2.4 billion to fund additional education and training places over the next five years, sets out the ambition to increase training places for pharmacists by nearly 50% to around 5,000 by 2031/32, and to grow the number of pharmacy technicians.Employers have a key role in staff recruitment and making roles in pharmacy attractive. To support employers, we are undertaking a series of reforms to enable the workforce to do more and act at the top of their profession and NHS England to provide fully funded training opportunities.

Pharmacy: Medical Records

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to link GP records with pharmacies.

Andrea Leadsom: As set out in the Primary Care Recovery Plan, we are investing in significantly improving the digital infrastructure between general practice (GP) and community pharmacy. This includes streamlining referrals, providing pharmacies with additional access to relevant clinical information from the GP record, and sharing structured updates quickly and efficiently following a pharmacy consultation back into the GP patient record.These improvements will improve the delivery and impact of existing and future services as well as reducing the administrative workload for both contractors; for example, by allowing GP patient records to be easily updated following supply of oral contraception or a blood pressure consultation in community pharmacy.

Pharmacy: Closures

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to help prevent the closure of local independent pharmacies.

Andrea Leadsom: The Department is closely monitoring changes to the pharmacy network to ensure access to services the services they provide on behalf of the National Health Service. Access to pharmaceutical services remains good with 80 percent of people in England living within 20 minutes walking distance of a pharmacy and twice as many pharmacies in the most deprived areas of the country.Most closures in recent years have resulted from large companies optimising their portfolio. As a result of this divestment activity the number of independent pharmacies is increasing.

Smoking

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the policy paper entitled Stopping the start: our new plan to create a smokefree generation, published on 8 November 2023, whether it is her policy to include cigar-based products in these proposals.

Andrea Leadsom: As the smoke from cigars is as harmful as that from cigarettes causing various smoking related diseases, including cancers, this is included under the current proposals, mirroring existing age of sale legislation.A consultation on the Government’s new tobacco and vaping proposals is open until 6 December 2023 and is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/creating-a-smokefree-generation-and-tackling-youth-vapingThe Government will respond in full to the consultation once it has closed.

Pharmacy

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure that patients will not face delayed (a) diagnoses and (b) treatments under the new system of care navigation and expanded pharmacy services.

Andrea Leadsom: The purpose of commissioning community pharmacy to supply prescription only medicines for seven common conditions and in training care navigators in general practices (GPs) to refer patient to appropriate health professionals for care is to release GP appointments for patients with more serious conditions. Detailed patient group directions and service specifications have been developed to support the new Pharmacy First Service which will include ‘red flags’ which means that anyone suspected of a more serious conditions will be referred to a GP. Pharmacists are highly qualified clinicians who train for five years and already see patients and treat them with medicines that can be supplied over the counter at pharmacies and refer a range of patients with commons conditions. This new service enables them to complete more episodes of care.

Genito-urinary Medicine: Young People

Peter Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to provide (a) advice on and (b) services for safe sexual health to people under 25 years of age.

Andrea Leadsom: Local authority commissioned sexual health services (SHSs) play and important role in improving sexual health outcomes and preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including communicating messages about safer sexual behaviours and how to access services. We are providing more than £3.5 billion to local authorities to fund public health services, including SHSs, through the public health grant in this financial year. Individual local authorities are responsible for and well placed to make funding and commissioning decisions about the SHSs that best meet the needs of their local populations, including services for young people.The National Chlamydia Screening Programme focuses on reducing reproductive harm of untreated infection in young women aged between 15 to 24 years old. The programme has the secondary aims of reducing re-infections and onward transmission of chlamydia and raising awareness of good sexual health and a recent report by the UK Health Security Agency shows testing has increased between 2021 and 2022.As part of the HIV Action Plan, the Department is investing over £3.5 million to deliver a National HIV Prevention Programme between 2021 and 2024 to raise awareness of HIV, STIs testing and prevention strategies, targeting populations most at high-risk of HIV, including young people. This includes the annual National HIV Testing week, during which HIV testing is promoted and funded for the whole of England.

Pharmacy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make a comparative assessment of the potential merits of (a) allowing pharmacists to undertake wider health assessments and (b) using a multi-disciplinary scheme.

Andrea Leadsom: An increasing number of pharmacists are already performing wider health assessments as part of a multidisciplinary team in general practice. Many of these pharmacists are also independent prescribers.In community pharmacy, pharmacists continue to undertake health assessments, for example for minor illnesses, blood pressure checks and oral contraception and from early next year as part of Pharmacy First.We are building on this growing role with pilots led by NHS England and integrated care boards that test how independent prescribing could work in community pharmacy to inform further expansion of clinical services in community pharmacy.We are also working to provide community pharmacies, from early next year, with additional access to relevant clinical information from the general practice’s (GP) record and share structured updates quickly and efficiently following a pharmacy consultation back into the GP patient record. This will support further integration of pharmaceutical services across settings.

Dental Services: Finance

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her Department's expected timescales are for integrated care boards to report on how much of their dental funding allocation they have used in the 2023-24 financial year; what estimate her Department has made of how much of the total allocation (a) has been and (b) is forecast to be spent on (i) other priorities and (ii) returned to NHS England; and if she will make it her policy to rollover any underspend in the primary dentistry budget to create more NHS dental appointments.

Andrea Leadsom: NHS England has provided guidance for integrated care boards (ICBs) that requires dental funding to be ringfenced, with any unused resources re-directed to improve dental access in the National Health Service in the first instance. A schedule setting out the dental ringfence has been issued to ICBs. NHS England’s 2023/24 revenue finance and contracting guidance, which provides more detail, is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/2023-24-revenue-finance-and-contracting-guidance/ICBs report their expenditure against the dental ringfence to NHS England as part of in-year financial reporting. Data for the 2023/24 financial year will be available after the end of the current financial year. NHS England’s finance business rules set out the approach to managing prior year under and overspends. The latest business rules are available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/icb-and-system-finance-business-rules/

Pharmacy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to end the use of blister packs in pharmacy.

Andrea Leadsom: There are no plans for the Department to recommend that pharmacies should stop preparing blister packs for their patients. The dispensing of medicines in the form of monitored dosage systems (MDSs), such as blister packs and dosette boxes, are part of broader compliance-support services. Under the Equality Act 2010, pharmacies must make reasonable adjustments to their services to help certain patients. Any adjustment must be considered ‘reasonable’, both for the pharmacy and the patient. MDSs are one of many adherence interventions and may be associated with their own risks which is underpinned by guidance issued by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.Patients requiring compliance-support services, should be assessed on a case-by-case basis for the right intervention for them. Patients can inform their pharmacy of their individual situation and discuss what adjustments might be reasonable in their circumstances, which may or may not be a blister pack or other form of compliance aid. There are pharmacy contractors that specialise in blister packs and offer blister packs to all patients in England that are on at least four medicines.

General Practitioners: South West

Mr Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve access to NHS GP appointments in (a) Bournemouth East constituency and (b) the South West.

Andrea Leadsom: We recognise that despite the hard work of general practice (GP) teams, some patients are still struggling to access care in a timely way. That is why we have published our Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care. The plan has two central ambitions to improve access across England: to tackle the 8am rush and reduce the number of people struggling to contact their practice, and for patients to know on the day they contact their practice how their request will be managed.We will achieve this by modernising telephone systems which can help practices to better match their capacity to patient demand, backed by £240 million in retargeted funding. The plan will empower patients to do more themselves, cut bureaucracy for GPs to make more time available for appointments and build capacity to deliver more appointments. We are investing at least £1.5 billion to create an additional 50 million general practice appointments by 2024 by increasing and diversifying the workforce.There were 3.38 million general practice appointments in the South West region in September 2023, up from 3.03 million in September 2022. Appointment data is not published at constituency level.

Chronic Illnesses: Children

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking with the Secretary of State for Education to ensure that schools follow the statutory guidance entitled Supporting pupils with medical conditions at school, published on 1 September 2014.

Andrea Leadsom: The statutory guidance to schools is issued by the Department for Education, and responsibility for policy relating to schools sits with that Department.Officials in the Department of Health and Social Care work closely with officials at the Department for Education to ensure the health and care system’s appropriate contribution to support children with health conditions, special educational needs, and disabilities in schools. This includes work to take forward the reforms of SEND and alternative provision and on the continued roll-out of mental health support teams and senior mental health leads in schools and colleges in England.

Meat

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Food Standards Agency has made an assessment of the potential impact of changing the legal definition of wishbone meat.

Andrea Leadsom: There is no legal definition of wishbone meat. The Food Standards Agency has not made an assessment of the potential impact of introducing such a legal definition.

Pharmacy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she make an assessment of the potential merits of incorporating advanced services for pharmacy within the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance she issues to ICBs on commissioning community pharmacy services.

Andrea Leadsom: National Health Service pharmaceutical services are either: essential, which all pharmacies must provide; advanced, which all pharmacies can opt into providing; or enhanced, commissioned from selected pharmacies by NHS England or integrated care boards.An increasing number of advanced services are being delivered as part of the national Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework including the New Medicines Service, Contraception Service, Blood Pressure Check Service, Stop Smoking Service. The new Pharmacy First service will also be introduced as an advanced service.Integrated care boards can commission enhanced services to complement national services and to meet the needs of the local populations. The types of services that can be commissioned as an enhanced service are set out in the Pharmaceutical Services (Advanced and Enhanced Services) (England) Directions.

Pharmacy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria her Department used to determine the seven conditions that could be diagnosed and treated through the Pharmacy First service.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of enabling pharmacists to provide non-urgent repeat prescriptions without a GP's involvement as part of the Pharmacy First service.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of enabling pharmacists to make community referrals as part of the Pharmacy First service.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to support community pharmacies to develop consultation facilities at their premises in the context of the launch of the Pharmacies First service.

Andrea Leadsom: The seven Pharmacy First conditions were determined by a Clinical Reference Group led by NHS England, with clinical expertise across primary care and including representatives from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to ensure the treatment pathways were designed according to the latest NICE guidance. The service design was also informed by services locally commissioned in England and schemes in Scotland and Wales.As announced in the Primary Care Recovery Plan, we will support interoperable digital solutions to make referrals from general practice to community pharmacy and between community pharmacies easier. Community pharmacists are required, as part of their Terms of Service, to signpost or refer patients to other health and social care providers and support organisations, either by advising the patient or by providing a referral note if appropriate.Electronic Repeat Dispensing already allows community pharmacies to manage repeat prescriptions for up to 12 months. It requires a general practitioner (GP) to send a series of prescriptions to the patient’s pharmacy in one go and the pharmacy can then repeat dispense against at appropriate intervals without the need for the patient to contact the GP.All community pharmacies are already required to have a consultation room unless the integrated care board has agreed they are too small to have a consultation room.

Health: Screening

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will increase funding for (a) health prevention and (b) screening programmes.

Andrew Stephenson: By the end of the Parliament, core Departmental spending will have increased from £140.5 billion in 2019/20 to £193.1 billion in 2024-25, representing a cash increase of £52.6 billion. That is a 37% cash increase in the Department’s total budget between 2019/20 and 2024/25. This means total health and social care spending will continue to grow in real terms between 2019/20 and 2024/25 by 3.4%, which represents the compound annual growth rate in 2022/23 prices.The Public Health Grant will increase over the current spending review period, rising to £3.6 billion in 2024/25. Taking the Public Health Grant together with additional grants for drug treatment and start for life services, the funding that the Department provides to local authorities for public health will grow by more than 5% in real terms over the two years 2023/24 and 2024/25. Moreover, from 2024/25 we are investing an additional £70 million per year to support local authority-led stop smoking services, more than doubling current spend on these services, in support of our commitment to deliver a smoke-free generation.Funding for prevention services and for screening programmes is also included in the overall 2023/24 National Health Service budget of £172 billion. Furthermore, in July 2023, the Government invested in the launch of a new targeted lung cancer screening programme, which when fully rolled out will detect approximately 9000 cancers earlier each year.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Drugs

Tahir Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is readily available to people who need it.

Andrew Stephenson: We are aware of disruptions to the supply of medicines used for the management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), primarily driven by issues which have resulted in capacity constraints at key manufacturing sites. We understand how frustrating and distressing medicine shortages can be and we want to assure patients that we are working with the respective manufacturers to resolve the issues as soon as possible and to ensure patients have continuous access to ADHD medicines in the United Kingdom, in the short and long term.We have issued communications to the National Health Service to advise healthcare professionals on management of patients whilst there continue to be disruptions to supplies. Patients are advised to speak to their clinician regarding any concerns they have and to discuss the suitability of treatment with alternative medicines.

Members: Correspondence

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to respond to the email correspondence of 27 September 2023 from the hon. Member for Sefton Central.

Andrew Stephenson: The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Lord Markham) replied to the hon. Member on 24 November 2023.

Blood Diseases: Medical Treatments

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on access to new treatments for sickle cell disease and beta thalassaemia.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department regularly discusses a range of issues with colleagues in NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) related to patient access to effective new treatments. NICE appraises all newly licensed medicines and aims to publish draft guidance around the time of licensing wherever possible. NICE works closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and NHS England to ensure that there is a joined-up, timely approach to supporting access to new treatments for National Health Service patients.NICE is currently appraising exagamglogene autotemcel for treating transfusion-dependent beta-thalassaemia and sickle cell disease, and expects to publish final guidance in March and April 2024 respectively.

Pharmacy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to help limit the costs of pharmaceutical products.

Andrew Stephenson: A series of voluntary agreements between the Government and the pharmaceuticals industry have existed since 1957 to control National Health Service spend on branded medicines. The current scheme came into effect at the start of 2019 and will last until the end of 2023. Agreement has been reached in principle with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry on a successor scheme, the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG), which is set to save the NHS £14 billion over five years in medicines costs. The Department also has a broadly equivalent Statutory Scheme for branded medicine pricing which applies to companies that do not opt into the voluntary scheme.For unbranded generic medicines, the Department relies on competition to keep prices down, allowing prices to react to the market. In an international market this ensures that when demand is high and supply is low, prices in the United Kingdom can increase to help secure the availability of medicines for UK patients.

Liver Cancer

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help reduce rates of liver cancer in the UK.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department is supporting the National Health Service to reduce rates of liver cancer in England through NHS England providing support to the NHS to help patients live healthier lives, improve early diagnosis, and develop new treatments.Improving early cancer diagnosis is a priority. The NHS is working towards the NHS Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage 1 and 2 by 2028, meaning 55,000 more people each year will survive their cancer at least five years after diagnosis. To deliver this, the Department is driving faster roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, establishing 123 community diagnostic centres (CDCs), with capacity prioritised for cancer. NHS cancer standards will also be reformed with the support of clinicians to speed up diagnosis for patients. In addition, the NHS-Galleri Trial is looking into the use of a new blood test to see if it can help the NHS to detect cancer early when used alongside existing cancer screening, including liver cancers.The NHS’s Core20PLUS5 programme is a national intervention which aims to provide the best treatment and care for patients and tackling health disparities. The Government’s Major Conditions Strategy, focused on six major groups of conditions, including cancers, will apply a geographical lens to address regional disparities in health outcomes and improve healthy life expectancy.The Department has also committed support to the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce, which targets cancers with stubbornly poor survival rates. This partnership focuses on liver, pancreas, lung, brain, oesophagus and stomach cancers, raising awareness of these less survivable cancers so more people understand their symptoms and go to see their GP if they have concerns.

Radiology: Staff

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the number of clinical radiology staff trainee places on the demand for clinical diagnostic services in the last 12 months.

Andrew Stephenson: There are 75 more doctors in clinical radiology specialty training programmes in 2023 compared to 2022. The following table sets out the number of doctors the General Medical Council (GMC) have recorded as being on clinical radiology specialty training programmes in England from 2012 to 2023, showing a year-on-year increase: YearNumber of doctors20231562202214872021135920201289201912232018115820171129201610802015101920141037201310222012981Source: GMC National Trainee Survey data. Accessed via GMC Data Explorer, Postgraduate data, available at the following link: data.gmc-uk.org/gmcdata/home/#/reports/Postgraduate training/Stats/report. Successful completion of the clinical radiology training programme allows doctors to join the GMC specialist register.In addition to this, the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) sets out how we will meet the workforce challenges of the future through increasing recruitment, including doubling medical school training places and increasing allied health professional training places by a quarter by 2031/32. The LTWP also sets a path to ensure up to 130,000 fewer staff leave the National Health Service by improving culture, leadership, and wellbeing. In addition to retention measures, we will reform and modernise the way staff work, harness new technology and increase productivity to ensure staff can spend more time with patients. This will apply to all NHS staff groups, including radiologists.

Brain: Tumours

Dominic Raab: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 4 September 2023 to Question 195426 on Brain: Tumours, how much and what proportion of the National Institute for Health and Care Research's allocated spend was spent on research infrastructure in each year since 2018.

Andrew Stephenson: The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)’s infrastructure investment funds the world-class facilities, expertise, and skilled delivery workforce for research across the National Health Service and wider health and care system in England from early translational clinical research through to applied health and care research.It is difficult to attribute this funding to specific disease and therapy areas as the staff and facilities funded through the NIHR infrastructure support research across disciplines. For example, the NIHR Clinical Research Network supported almost one million participants to take part in health and care research in England in 2022/23 across 5,000 studies and 30 specialties, and the 20 NIHR Biomedical Research Centres supported 8,700 experimental medicine studies in 2021/22.Whilst audited data for NIHR expenditure for 2022/23 is not yet available, the following table shows the NIHR spend on research infrastructure each financial year between 2018/19 and 2021/22 as well the proportion of spend on research infrastructure compared to overall NIHR spend:  2017/182018/192019/202020/212021/22Infrastructure spend£521,892£545,974£548,613£541,361£615,077Total allocated spend£1,012,711£1,012,920£1,036,723£1,116,137£1,259,436Infrastructure spend as proportion of total allocated spend52%54%53%49%49%

NHS: Pay

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to pay (a) nurses and (b) other healthcare and NHS staff for the extra hour they spend on shift when the clocks go back.

Andrew Stephenson: Most nurses and other healthcare staff that are directly employed by National Health Service organisations are covered by national terms and conditions of service. These national terms and conditions do not make specific provisions, including pay provisions, for shifts that cover the period when the clocks change twice a year. This is therefore a matter for NHS organisations to determine locally, taking steps to ensure that consistent approaches are taken.

NHS: Drugs

Keir Mather: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to increase the availability of medicine supply in (a) Selby and Ainsty constituency and (b) nationally.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department works at a national level to address medicine supply issues and help prevent, manage, and mitigate medicine shortages. Medicine supply problems can occur for several reasons; for example, they can be due to manufacturing difficulties, regulatory problems, problems with the supply of raw materials, sudden demand spikes or from issues which are related to the distribution of the product.The production of medicines is complex and highly regulated, and materials and processes must meet rigorous safety and quality standards. Occasionally, the National Health Service experiences temporary shortages of specific medicines.We know how distressing the possibility of shortages can be and we have well-established processes for working with the pharmaceutical industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, NHS England, the devolved governments and others operating in the supply chain to help ensure patients have access to the treatments they need.

Bowel Cancer: Screening

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help increase access to bowel cancer screenings.

Andrew Stephenson: Based on advice from the UK National Screening Committee, the National Health Service is currently extending the age criteria for bowel cancer screening from between 60 and 74 years old so that screening will be available from the age of 50 years old; this is due to be completed by 2024/25. This will increase access for people who would have otherwise not been able to access the service.

Cancer: Smoking

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to encourage regular cancer check-ups for people who smoke.

Andrew Stephenson: On 26 June 2023, we announced the roll out of a National Targeted Lung Cancer Screening Programme in England accepting the recommendation of the UK National Screening Committee. The programme invites those between 55 and 74 years old, with a history of smoking who are deemed at high risk for lung cancer for a low dose computerised tomography scan.When fully rolled out in 2030, this programme will detect around 9,000 cancers earlier each year.

Cancer: Screening

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans she has for use of the Galleri blood test in cancer testing and diagnosis across the NHS.

Andrew Stephenson: The NHS-Galleri Trial is looking into the use of a new blood test to see if it can help the National Health Service to detect cancer early when used alongside existing cancer screening. The trial has now recruited the target of 140,000 participants and interim results are expected in spring or summer 2024. If the trial is successful, the NHS has committed to rolling out up to one million Galleri tests in 2024 and 2025 as part of an interim implementation pilot. The clinical trial is currently planned to conclude in 2025 with results expected in 2026.

Health Services and Social Services: Disability

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans NHS England has to update the Accessible Information Standard.

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help ensure that providers of health and care services are producing information in adequately accessible format.

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department plans to revise the NHS Accessible Information Standard.

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that health and care information is provided in an accessible format.

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department plans to increase funding for accessible health information.

Maria Caulfield: National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers must comply with the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) to meet the communication needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss. NHS England has completed a review of the AIS to help ensure that everyone’s communication needs are met in health and care provision. The review considered the effectiveness of the current AIS, how the standard is implemented and enforced in practice, and identified recommendations for improvement. The revised standard will be published in due course.Following publication of the revised standard, NHS England will continue work to support implementation with awareness raising, communication and engagement and updated e-learning modules on the AIS to ensure NHS staff are better aware of the standard and their roles and responsibilities in implementing it.These actions should support better and more consistent implementation of the standard.In addition to the AIS, following Royal Assent of the British Sign Language Act 2022, the Government Communication Service will promote and facilitate the use of British Sign Language (BSL) in communications with the public. This is expected to support BSL users to access public services, including health and care services. Our work to promote BSL builds on a longstanding departmental commitment to ensuring our content is accessible for disabled audiences. Our GOV.UK and social media content closely follows guidance from the Government Digital Service. All videos are captioned for those who are hard of hearing, graphics have accessible texts and colours for those with reading difficulties and have voiceover descriptions for the partially sighted.

NHS: Databases

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, against what criteria the potential provider of the Federated Data Platform will be assessed to ensure it has the capabilities to deliver the project.

Andrew Stephenson: The following table shows the evaluation criteria for the Federated Data Platform and Associated Services procurement which was published as part of the procurement documentation on NHS England’s e-tendering system:  Quality (Technical)Platform1a) RequirementsNo weighting or scoring 1b) Data Platform Functionality6% 1c) Data Processing4% 1d) Analytical Solutions4% 1e) Platform Scenario5% Service2a) Service Management3% 2b) Third-party Integration, Development, and Publication5% Customer Base3a) Customer management3% Landscape4a) Integration5% 4b) Security and Information Governance5%  Implementation5a) Delivery at Pace5% 5b) Business Change5% Behaviours6a) Ways of Working5% 6b) Innovation3% 6c) Continuous improvement2% Quality (Social Value) Social Value7a) Fighting climate change5% 7b) Equal opportunity5% Commercial Price8a) Rate Card5% 8b) Implementation (transition)2.5% 8c) Use Case Development5% 8d) Run17.5% Note: The evaluation criteria comprised 60% quality, 10% social value and 30% commercial.

IVF

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) cycles of IVF were funded and (b) people received a cycle of IVF in each (i) integrated care board and (ii) clinical commissioning group in each year since 1997.

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much each (a) integrated care board and (b) clinical commissioning group spent on IVF in each year since 1997.

Maria Caulfield: This information is not collected centrally.

Health Services: Disability

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have informed her Department that they have not received information in an adequately accessible format in the last 12 months.

Maria Caulfield: The information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Paxlovid

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the submission by NHS England to NICE of Form ID6262: Nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir for treating COVID-19 (Partial Rapid Review of TA878), what assessment she has made of the potential merits of NHS England’s request for a 12-month delay to access to Paxlovid for some clinically vulnerable patients.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department recognises that implementation of the updated National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommendations on nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir (Paxlovid) within the standard three-month timescale that applies to NICE’s recommendations would be challenging for the National Health Service. The Department supports NICE’s consultation on NHS England’s proposal to phase rollout to the expanded cohort of patients over a 12-month period. NHS England’s proposal would ensure that the NHS has sufficient time to put in place the capacity necessary to support access to treatment and consider how to ensure the availability of testing in way that provides value for money, whilst continuing to ensure access for patients at highest risk of serious illness from COVID-19.NICE will carefully consider the comments received in response to the consultation in making its final recommendations.

Brain: Tumours

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to provide further funding to support National Institute for Health Research into brain tumour research.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department invests in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR invests in research, clinical expertise, specialist facilities, workforce, and support services across a range of clinical areas. NIHR expenditure on cancer research was £101.2 million in 2021/22.The Government is committed to funding high-quality brain tumour research. The May 2018 Government announcement of £40 million for brain tumour research as part of the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission remains available and if we can spend more on the best quality science we will do.We welcome high-quality applications for brain tumour research funding. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition. The NIHR continues to follow its normal high-quality processes in making funding recommendations to the Department. It is worth noting that all applications that were fundable in open competition have been funded.

NHS: Databases

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Federated Data Platform on (a) healthcare and (b) the ability of health authorities to identify trends to support the provision of healthcare.

Andrew Stephenson: The benefits of the Federated Data Platform have been assessed and tested via several pilot sites taking a similar approach. These have identified the potential, for example, to increase theatre utilisation by an average of 5.63%, meaning on average an additional 120 procedures are performed per month. Waiting list management has allowed to date over 52,000 patients to be flagged for removal from the waiting lists, due to removal of duplicate entries and improving record keeping. During the response to COVID-19, by bringing data together and using data driven insights to deliver and assess the success of the COIVD-19 vaccine, the National Health Service was able to adapt services, target areas of low uptake and ensure the provision of healthcare was provided to all. It is these benefits and many other similar use cases that underpin the need for a federated data platform to ensure that targeted healthcare provision is optimally planned, resourced, and delivered.

NHS: Databases

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the Federated Data Platform protects the confidentiality of patient details outside of (a) clinical and (b) research requirements.

Andrew Stephenson: The Federated Data Platform (FDP) will not be the route to access data for research purposes. Secure access to NHS data for research purposes will be provided through the NHS Research Secure Data Environment Network. The software will provide a very high standard of security due to the purpose-based access controls, limiting access to data to specific individuals for a specific purpose, coupled with new Privacy Enhancing Technology (NHS-PET), which will provide robust protection and a standard approach to support safe data access and use. The NHS-PET will be procured from a different supplier to the supplier of the Federated Data Platform and the platform will not go live until the PET is fully in place. The use of the data in the Federated Data Platform will always remain under the full control and protection of the NHS. Patient data cannot be accessed by the company that makes the software. Primarily, the data will remain within the organisation where the patient receives their care, and there are strict access controls within the NHS to ensure that only those who need to see the data are able to.All uses of data within federated data platforms must be ethical, for the public good, and comply with all existing law. This includes the UK General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Common Law Duty of Confidentiality. There is a robust Information Governance Framework in place to ensure this.

Intensive Care: Hospital Beds

Mr Rob Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of hospital beds for acute treatment.

Mr Rob Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS England publication of 20 January 2023 entitled Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services, what his planned timetable is for delivering 5,000 additional permanent beds; and what steps the Government is taking to progress delivery of those additional beds.

Helen Whately: Our Delivery Plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services set the ambition to increase the core general and acute bed base, above originally planned 2022/23 levels, by 5,000 sustainable, permanent beds in 2023/24. This takes the funded core bed base to over 99,000. NHS England in continuing to work with local systems and trusts to deliver this ambition.

Social Services: Standards

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to take steps to improve standards of social care.

Helen Whately: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator for health and social care in England. They monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety. The vast majority of care services provide high quality care and support, with 83% of all social care settings rated good or outstanding by the CQC in October 2023.The Department is taking steps to further improve the standards of adult social care. We have made a landmark shift in how we understand local authorities are delivering adult social care against the Care Act 2014 and holding them to account for the standard of care they provide.CQC assessment of local authorities and published ratings will tell us how local authorities are meeting their statutory duties and responsibilities under the Care Act 2014. The assessments focus on four themes linked to part 1 of the Care Act 2014, including; working with people, providing support, ensuring safety and leadership. These assessments will increase transparency and local accountability, meaning people will be able to hold their local authority to account and, ultimately, have access to the consistent, high-quality care and support they deserve – irrespective of where they live. They will help to raise standards of care by making good practice, positive outcomes, and outstanding quality easier to spot and share nationally.The CQC will also identify where improvement and additional support is needed, and the Secretary of State has new powers to intervene to secure improvement in serious cases where a local authority has failed or is failing to discharge its Care Act duties to an acceptable standard. As part of this, the Department is working in collaboration with sector partners to deliver an annual programme of support to local authorities to drive performance. For 2023/2024, we are providing £16 million to make support available to local authorities and their partners.

NHS: Databases

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times unauthorized parties have gained access to (a) sensitive data and (b) confidential information on the Federated Data Platform in the past twelve months.

Andrew Stephenson: The Federated Data Platform (FDP) is software that will sit across National Health Service trusts and integrated care systems allowing them to connect data they already hold in a secure and safe environment. The contract for the FDP has not yet been awarded. The service is not yet live or in use. In line with current transition planning, we do not expect data to be placed into the FDP until 2024. No unauthorised parties have gained access to sensitive data or confidential information for the Care Coordination Solution or OPTICA pilots.

Cabinet Office

Cabinet: Meetings

Mr Rob Roberts: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish statistics on the number of words spoken in Cabinet meetings in the last 12 months broken down by individual.

Alex Burghart: It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet, and its Committees, is not normally shared publicly.

Cabinet: Public Appointments

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps Cabinet members appointed on 13November2023 have taken as part of the interests declaration and management process as of 21 November 2023.

Alex Burghart: The Ministerial Code makes clear that Ministers must ensure that no conflict arises, or could reasonably be perceived to arise, between their public duties and their private interests, financial or otherwise. It is the personal responsibility of each Minister to decide whether and what action is needed to avoid a conflict or the perception of a conflict, taking account of advice received from their Permanent Secretary and the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ interests.As set out in Chapter 7 of the Ministerial Code, there is an established regime in place for the declaration and management of private interests held by ministers. Cabinet members appointed on 13 November 2023 are following this standard process. On appointment to each new office, ministers must provide their Permanent Secretary and Independent Adviser with a full list of interests which might be thought to give rise to a conflict. This includes interests of the minister’s spouse or partner and close family which might be thought to give rise to a conflict.The Independent Adviser publishes a list of relevant interests. Work is underway on the next List which will include all ministers appointed week commencing 13 November.

Refugees: Afghanistan

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs on 8 November 2023, Official Report, column 114, what responsibility the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs has for Pathway Two of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme.

Johnny Mercer: In October this year, the Prime Minister asked me to coordinate departmental plans for relocating eligible Afghans and their families under both the ARAP and ACRS schemes. Departments retain responsibility for their specific policy areas.

Veterans: Surveys

Derek Twigg: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to publish the results of the the Veteran's Survey, launched on 10 November 2022.

Johnny Mercer: The Office for National Statistics is due to publish the initial results of the Veterans’ Survey on 15th December this year. Future releases will be announced on the ONS website in due course.

Veterans: Finance

John Healey: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to paragraph 5.6 of the Autumn Statement 2023, CP977, over what timeframe the £10 million funding to support veterans will be spent.

John Healey: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to paragraph 5.6 of the Autumn Statement 2023, CP977, whether the £10 million commitment to support veterans is new funding.

Johnny Mercer: The £10 million commitment to support veterans is new funding for the Veterans’ Places, Pathways and People Programme, which will increase support to a significant community of vulnerable veterans throughout the UK. The funding will be spent over three financial years 2024-2025, 2025-2026 and 2026-2027.

Veterans: Homelessness

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many full time equivalent employees in his Department work on the delivery of Op Fortitude.

Johnny Mercer: Op Fortitude is coordinated by the Cabinet Office and delivered by third sector partners requiring flexible support depending on the demands on the service.The Riverside Group is the lead delivery partner for Op FORTITUDE, bringing together Local Authorities, charities and housing providers across the UK to support homeless or rough sleeping veterans.

Emergencies

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what meetings he has had with (a) devolved mayoral authorities and (b) local authorities on national resilience in the last 12 months.

John Glen: The previous Minister for the Cabinet Office and the Deputy Prime Minister chaired meetings of the UK Resilience Forum on the 2nd of February and 19th July 2023, to discuss risk and resilience capability building with senior stakeholders from across national, regional and local government; the private and voluntary sectors and other interested parties. More widely, the Cabinet Office engages regularly with all local partners on national resilience, as part of the Government’s commitment to implement the December 2022 UK Government Resilience Framework. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is the Lead Government Department responsible for managing the relationship between central government and local authorities.

Infected Blood Inquiry

Dan Carden: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if his Department will take steps to implement all the recommendations of the Second Interim Report of the Infected Blood Inquiry, published 5 April 2023.

Dan Carden: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has had recent discussions with the Chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry on the impact of the delay to the publication of its final report on people affected.

John Glen: The Government is committed to responding to the recommendations in the second interim report as quickly as possible following the publication of the final report. The timeline for the publication of the final report is a matter for the independent Chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry.

Department for Business and Trade

Small Businesses: South West

Mr Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to support and encourage small businesses in (a) Bournemouth East constituency and (b) the South West.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Department supports small businesses in the South-West through Help to Grow: Management, the Business Support Helpline and Growth Hubs.The Dorset Growth Hub supports small businesses in Bournemouth East through services such as bid-writing support and a business innovation programme.The Start Up Loans Company, part of the Government-owned British Business Bank, is also supporting regional businesses. As of October 2023, 12 SMEs in Bournemouth East have received start up loans to the value of £150,200, and 493 SMEs in the South-West have received start up loans to the value of £6,270,084.

Small Businesses: Mid Bedfordshire

Alistair Strathern: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many SMEs in Mid Bedfordshire constituency have received Government funding in each of the last three years.

Kevin Hollinrake: The government aims to make the UK the best place in the world to start, scale up, and grow a business. We provide extensive business support, with over 40 help offers available. 12,469 business support grants totalling some £82.28m were made in Central Bedfordshire between March 2020 and March 2022.These grants provided vital support for businesses during the Covid-19 crisis. Our Business Support Helpline and Growth Hubs provide expert advice, guidance, and signposting to all types of business. The Government-backed British Business Bank also improves access to finance and is providing over £12.4bn of finance to over 90,000 SMEs.

Companies House: Correspondence

Dame Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will ask Companies House for a planned timescale for its response to the correspondence of 2 November 2023 from the hon. Member for Wallasey on a company unknown to the resident registered at a residential address.

Kevin Hollinrake: Companies House has issued a response to the hon. Member for Wallasey. Companies House regrets the delay in responding.

New Businesses: Bedfordshire

Alistair Strathern: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what (a) financial and (b) other steps her Department is taking to encourage the creation of businesses in (i) Mid Bedfordshire constituency and (ii) Bedfordshire.

Kevin Hollinrake: The government aims to make the UK the best place in the world to start a business. The Start Up Loans Company, part of the Government-owned British Business Bank, is creating opportunities for businesses to start and grow. As of October 2023, 13 SMEs in Mid Bedfordshire have received start-up loans to the value of £159,200 and 70 SMEs in Bedfordshire to the value of £838,600. The government also provides extensive support to aspiring businesses, through the Business Support Helpline, a network of Growth Hubs and GOV.UK website, which provides information on starting up and running a business.

Trade Agreements: Australia and New Zealand

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the impact of free trade agreements signed with (a) Australia and (b) New Zealand on businesses in Northern Ireland.

Greg Hands: The Department's impact assessments of the UK-Australia and UK-New Zealand Free Trade Agreements were published on 16th December 2021 and 28th February 2022 respectively. These impact assessments set out the potential long-run incremental economic impact of these FTAs, including the impact on Northern Ireland, and are available on gov.uk.As the agreements only entered into force on 31st May 2023 it would not be credible or proportionate to assess the impact to date, including on businesses in Northern Ireland.

Overseas Trade: EU Countries and USA

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for her Department's policies of (a) the EU's publication entitled European economic security strategy, published on 26 June 2023 and (b) Executive Order 14017 on America's Supply Chains, signed by President Biden on 24 February 2021.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: a) The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and other departments have assessed the high-level strategy published by the EU, which broadly aligns with UK interests. DBT is engaging closely with the EU and Member States across this agenda at ministerial and senior official level, as well as in technical discussions on specific policy areas.b) Executive Order 14017 instructs heads of US agencies to complete reviews of supply chain resilience. It does not directly impact UK policies. This Government has been proactively working with allies including the US on resilience, including reducing vulnerabilities in critical technologies and on clean energy supply chains through our Atlantic Declaration.

Ministry of Defence

Armed Forces: Housing

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 49 of the Ministry of Defence Annual Report and Accounts 2022 to 2023, published on 20 July 2023, what assessment he has made of the number and proportion of single living accommodation facilities that do not meet the new minimum standard.

James Cartlidge: The provision of high quality, subsidised accommodation for Service personnel is a key priority for Defence. As at 13 November 2023, 16% (13,347 rooms) of the Single Living Accommodation estate had not met the new minimum standard. The Armed Forces' forecast that 30% (3,879) of those rooms will meet the minimum standard by 1 April 2024.

Inappropriate Behaviours in the Armed Forces Review

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many of the recommendations from the 2019 Wigston Review, published in July 2019, have not been fully implemented.

Dr Andrew Murrison: All Wigston Review recommendations have now been closed. Three either could not be implemented or were partially implemented: Recommendations 1.2, 3.7, and 3.9.

Military Operations: Anniversaries

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department plans to take steps to commemorate those who served on (a) Operation Overload, (b) Operation Market Garden and (c) other operations that will mark their 80th anniversary in 2024.

Dr Andrew Murrison: Defence is currently leading on behalf of the Government in the planning of a series of significant commemorative events in the UK, France, the Netherlands, and Italy, to mark next year’s 80th Second World War anniversaries. Further details will be announced in due course, nearer the time.

Leadership: Training

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people in his Department have taken part in the Leading with Empowerment initiative since it was introduced.

Dr Andrew Murrison: 1,531 people registered to take part in the Leading with Empowerment initiative, which ran across Defence from October 2021 to December 2022.

Ministry of Defence: Technology

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost of spending by his Department on (a) novel and (b) directed energy weapons for land domain system technologies in the (i) 2019-20, (ii) 2020-21, (iii) 2021-22 and (iv) 2022-23 financial year.

James Cartlidge: The only “Novel” weapons technology work is the Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) work. There are currently two technology funding streams for DEW. These are the funding committed via the MOD Strategic Programmes Area as part of the Novel Weapons Programme and, secondly, the money that is spent in this area by the Chief Scientific Adviser’s (CSA) Science and Technology Programme.The MOD is unable to disclose per year breakdown of research spend due to commercial and national security sensitivities. It is also not possible to provide specific details on spend per year per technology owing to the nature of these programmes and the Department’s federated approach to capability development.

Veterans UK

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the oral statement of 21 November 2023 by the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Official Report, column 214, how much the rebranding of Veterans UK will cost.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The Veterans UK branding being retired is generally only used on digital media and letter templates. The removal of the branding will be done through the course of routine updates and within existing budgets and therefore no significant additional costs will be involved.

Armed Forces Compensation Scheme: Complaints

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many complaints relating to the timeliness of decisions from the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme his Department has received in each of the last 12 months.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The total number of formal complaints submitted to the Complaint Resolution Team (CRT) that identified a delay in processing a case or reaching a decision as the root cause of the complaint is detailed in the below table: Calendar MonthNumber of complaintsNovember 20224Dec 20221January 20230February 20232March 20234April 20233May 20237June 20234July 20234August 20235September 20237October 20235November 20234

Gaza: Humanitarian Aid

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his oral contribution of 20 November 2023, Official Report, column 3, on what date in November 2023 the next RAF flight will take off to deliver aid to civilians in Gaza.

James Heappey: The next RAF flight to deliver aid to civilians in Gaza took off from the UK on 23 November 2023.

Middle East: Armed Forces

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his oral contribution of 20 November 2023, Official Report, column 4, on what date he asked the Chief of the Defence Staff to review the position of UK personnel in the Middle East; and what estimate he has made of when that review will be complete.

James Heappey: Force protection of UK deployed personnel is the responsibility of the Chief of Joint Operations. At the 9 October COBR (Ministerial) pre-brief in the Ministry of Defence, the Secretary of State directed the Chief of Defence Staff to review the force protection posture of UK personnel in the Middle East in light of the evolving situation there. The Chief of Joint Operations completed this on 20 October, which is kept under constant review.

Middle East: Armed Forces

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his oral contribution of 20 November 2023, Official Report, column 3, where the additional 600 UK troops deployed in the Middle East are stationed.

James Heappey: The uplift of UK Service personnel in the wider region is principally associated with the Royal Navy taskforce in the Eastern Mediterranean and additional personnel forward deployed in the Sovereign Base Area in Cyprus. These personnel have been deployed to contribute to regional stability, deliver humanitarian aid and support UK interests.

Middle East: Armed Forces

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his oral contribution of 20 November 2023, Official Report, column 4, how many UK troops are in (a) Jordan, (b) Lebanon, (c) Oman, (d) Bahrain and (e) Cyprus as of 21 November 2023.

James Heappey: The UK maintains a presence in each of these locations  a) There are approximately 30 members of the UK Armed Forces in Jordan.b) There are approximately 40 members of the UK Armed Forces in Lebanon.c) There are approximately 1,000 members of the UK Armed Forces in Oman.d) There are approximately 400 members of the UK Armed Forces in Bahrain.e) There are approximately 3,000 members of the UK Armed Forces in the Sovereign Base Area on the island of Cyprus.

Israel: Armed Forces

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his oral contribution of 20 November 2023, Official Report, column 4, how many UK troops are in Israel as of 21 November 2023.

James Heappey: There are currently eight UK Service personnel in Israel. These staff are principally part of the Defence Section in Tel Aviv and the British Consulate General in Jerusalem.

Armed Forces: Housing

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much funding his Department has allocated for Service Family Accommodation over the next 10 years.

James Cartlidge: On current planning, funding for Service Family Accommodation is expected to be in excess of £1.2 billion over the remaining Spending Review period.Funding beyond this period has not yet been allocated and will be confirmed as part of the next Spending Review.

Contracts: Training

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people in his Department (a) had and (b) were awarded accreditations in contract management in each year since 2019.

James Cartlidge: Two grades of accreditation exist within the Commercial Profession. These are Practitioner Level (Grades AO-SEO and equivalent) and Expert Level (Grades 7 and above and equivalent). The table below shows how many people held accreditations in contract management within Defence between 1 January 2019 and 31 October 2023. Calendar YearPractitioner Licences heldExpert Licences held2023 (01/01-31/10/2023)802 Commercial Practitioners281 Commercial Experts2022845 Commercial Practitioners189 Commercial Experts2021760 Commercial Practitioners183 Commercial Experts2020669 Commercial Practitioners152 Commercial Experts2019Data recording not centralisedData recording not centralised  The table below shows how many accreditations were awarded in contract management between 1 January 2019 - 31 Oct 2023 Calendar Year Practitioner Licences issuedExpert Licences issued 2023 (01/01-31/10/23)9561202211510020219522020Data recording not centralisedData recording not centralised2019Data recording not centralisedData recording not centralised

Ministry of Defence: Departmental Expenditure Limits

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Autumn Statement 2023, CP 977, published on 22 November 2023, and to the Spring Budget 2023, HC 1183, published on 15 March 2023, what the reason is for the decrease in planned (a) RDEL and (b) CDEL in 2023/24.

James Cartlidge: Both reductions are due to budget cover transfers from the Ministry of Defence to other Government Departments to cover their costs. The detail of all of these transfers is provided within the relevant estimates memorandum.

Defence: Expenditure

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Government is still committed to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence when the fiscal and economic conditions allow.

James Cartlidge: There has been no change to the Government's aspiration to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP when the fiscal and economic conditions allow.

Sloane Helicopters: Contracts

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2023 to Question 2114 on Sloane Helicopters: Contracts, for what length of time the contract with Sloane Helicopters has been extended; what the maximum value is that has been placed on the services to be provided during that period; and when the contract extension was agreed.

James Cartlidge: The existing contract was extended from October pending a full competition on a new contract. Such commercial matters will be determined in due course. More broadly, the contract primarily provides travel for the command functions of the Ministry of Defence. Utilising irreducible spare capacity, provision is also made for senior Ministers and members of the Royal Household to travel in fulfilment of their official duties. I would note that such arrangements are long-standing and have operated under successive governments of all political colours.

Ministry of Defence: Bullying and Discrimination

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average length of time was for an investigation to be completed into (a) bullying, (b) harassment and (c) discrimination since the introduction of new decision making processes within his Department.

Dr Andrew Murrison: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave her to Question 2501 on 23 November 2023.Ministry of Defence: Bullying and Discrimination (docx, 14.8KB)

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will make representations to his Saudi counterpart on (a) the reported enforced disappearance of human rights activist Mohammed al-Qahtani, (b) releasing information on his whereabouts, (c) re-establishing his family contacts and (d) releasing him immediately.

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what representations his Department is making to his Saudi counterpart on the death sentence passed on Mohammed al-Ghamdi.

David Rutley: Saudi Arabia remains an FCDO Human Rights Priority Country, in part because of the continued use of the death penalty. The UK strongly opposes the death penalty in all countries and circumstances. The Minister for the Middle East and Human Rights, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon has raised these cases with the Saudi authorities. We will continue to monitor them.

Abdullah al-Derazi

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what representations he has made to his Saudi counterpart on the death sentence passed on Abdullah al-Derazi.

David Rutley: Saudi Arabia remains a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Human Rights Priority Country, in part because of the continued use of the death penalty. We continue to monitor the cases of the young men, including Abdullah al-Derazi, who allegedly committed their crimes as minors and are at risk of execution. The Minister for the Middle East and Human Rights, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon regularly raises these cases, including Abdullah al-Derazi with the Saudi authorities as a priority.

Israel: Nuclear Weapons

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent assessment his Department has made of whether Israel possesses nuclear weapons.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: Israel has never declared a nuclear weapons programme. The UK Government continues to encourage Israel to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as a Non-Nuclear Weapon State. We regularly monitor all global nuclear developments and will continue to work with international partners to strengthen the non-proliferation regime and advance multilateral nuclear disarmament. The UK Government closely follows the security situation in the Middle East and maintains a regular dialogue with international counterparts.

Israel: Palestinians

Dan Carden: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of formally recognising the State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: The UK is committed to making progress towards a two-state solution. We believe that negotiations will only succeed when they are conducted between Israelis and Palestinians, supported by the international community. The UK position is clear: to prevent further conflict and terrorism, there must be a political solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in the form of a two-state solution which provides justice and security for both Israelis and Palestinians. The Prime Minister has pledged to work together with our partners to redouble efforts towards this end, including by providing the serious, practical and enduring support needed to bolster the Palestinian Authority.The Foreign Secretary visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories on 23 and 24 November. He held meetings with the Palestinian Authority President Abbas, Prime Minister Shtayyeh, and Foreign Minister Malki. They spoke about the importance of getting aid into Gaza in greater volumes, deescalating tensions in the West Bank and across the region and a long-term political solution for Israelis and Palestinians.

Israel: Palestinians

Wayne David: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent discussions he has had with his Israeli counterpart on the release of Palestinians detained since 7 October 2023.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: We remain concerned about Israel's extensive use of administrative detention which, according to international law, should be used only when security makes this absolutely necessary. We continue to call on the Israeli authorities to comply with their obligations under international law and either charge or release detainees. We continue to make representations to the Israeli authorities on the troubling high number of Palestinian children who are not informed of their legal rights, in contravention of Israel's own regulations. We welcome the release of Palestinian detainees as part of the hostage deal brokered on 22 November, a crucial step towards providing relief to the families of the hostages and addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We urge all parties to ensure the agreement is delivered in full.The Foreign Secretary visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories on 23 and 24 November. During his visit to Israel, the Foreign Secretary met the President of the State of Israel, Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. In their meetings they discussed the importance of getting hostages and British nationals out of Gaza, the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the rising violence in the West Bank, and the urgent need for a meaningful, long-term political solution for Israelis and Palestinians.

Gaza: Genocide

Dan Carden: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his Department's policies of the International Commission of Jurists recent statement entitled, Gaza/Palestine: States have a Duty to Prevent Genocide, published 17 November 2023.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: The UK has consistently called on Israel to respect International Humanitarian Law regarding its operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The UK continues to engage closely with our bilateral and multilateral partners on this conflict and to urge de-escalation across the region.

Gubad Ibadoghlu

Dame Margaret Hodge: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the (a) detainment and (b) treatment of Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu in Azerbaijan.

Dame Margaret Hodge: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what discussions he has had with his counterparts in the Azerbaijani government on Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu.

Leo Docherty: We have raised Dr Ibadoghlu's case, including his access to medication and fair legal process, on a number of occasions with senior representatives of the Azerbaijani government in both London and Baku. I [Minister Docherty] spoke with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Bayramov in person about this case on 22 November during my visit to Baku. The former Foreign Secretary also raised the issue in a call on 17 October. Our Ambassador and other officials from the British Embassy in Baku continue to press the case with senior counterparts and to monitor the legal process. On 14 November, the UK delivered a statement during Azerbaijan's Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council highlighting this case. We urge Azerbaijan to improve human rights protections for all.

Christmas Island: Nuclear Weapons

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with reference to the address to the UN General Assembly by Kiribati's President in September 2023, if the Secretary of State will make a statement on the Government's position in response to requests relating to the impact of nuclear testing on Kiritimati.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he plans to respond to the joint statement by Kiribati and Kazakhstan, made at the August 2023 NPT PrepCom.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he plans to share with states affected by the UK's nuclear testing relevant information held by his Department which could assist ongoing efforts to assess the impacts of those tests.

Leo Docherty: The UK Government has no plans to respond to the joint statement made by Kiribati and Kazakhstan, as their statement is inconsistent with the UK's position on the legacy of nuclear tests. However, we recognise efforts to address the impact of historic nuclear testing and pay tribute to the veterans and civilians from the Pacific region involved in the tests. The UK has reviewed residual contamination relating to British nuclear tests on Kiribati and concluded that any required remediation had been undertaken.

Cyprus: Politics and Government

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will take steps to seek renewed negotiations on a resolution in Cyprus.

Leo Docherty: The UK Government remains committed to supporting UN efforts to reach a Cyprus Settlement within the UN parameters based on the model of a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation with political equality. We engage with all parties on this. The UK Government believes that, with flexibility, sufficient common ground to start formal negotiations can potentially be found. In the meantime, the UK continues to support confidence-building initiatives to build links between the communities to prepare for any future Settlement.

Cyprus: Turkey

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will make representations to his Turkish counterpart on the removal of military personnel in Northern Cyprus.

Leo Docherty: HMG regularly discusses the prospects for Cyprus Settlement with Turkish authorities at all levels. The Minister for Europe did so with his Ministerial counterparts on 16 November during his visit to Ankara. We continue to believe that a just and lasting settlement in Cyprus is the best means of resolving the difficulties caused by the division of the island.

Russia: Ukraine

Jim Shannon: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his Department’s policies of the Russian drone attacks against Ukraine on 17 and 18 November 2023.

Leo Docherty: We are appalled by Russia's drone attacks across Ukraine. Intentionally targeting civilians and civilian objects constitute war crimes. Those responsible will be held to account. On 16 November, the Foreign Secretary travelled to Kyiv for his first overseas visit to underline the UK's steadfast support for Ukraine against Russia's aggression. Alongside our allies we are providing Ukraine with critical air defence systems to protect civilians from Putin's barbaric bombing campaign, including the MSI-DS Terrahawk Paladin, a platform which can track and destroy drones and protect critical national infrastructure.

Cyprus

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied region of Cyprus.

Leo Docherty: Property is one of the most complex and sensitive subjects caught up in the Cyprus Problem. Ultimately, the most effective way to resolve the issues arising from the events of 1974, including property claims, is through the UN-facilitated talks aimed at reuniting Cyprus on the basis of a just and lasting settlement. The UK continues to support the UN-led process and encourage the two sides to return to negotiations.

Cyprus: Turkey

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether his Department has made a recent estimate of the number of people that migrated from Turkey to the occupied region of Northern Cyprus since 1983.

Leo Docherty: In accordance with the rest of the international community, with the sole exception of Turkey, the UK does not recognise the self-declared "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" as an independent state. The FCDO does not hold any information about the number of people that emigrated from Turkey to the occupied region in the north of Cyprus since 1983.

Armenia: Azerbaijan

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether his Department has provided humanitarian support to people in Armenia who have been displaced by the Azerbaijani offensive and reoccupation in Nagorno-Zarabakh.

Leo Docherty: The UK is providing £1 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to provide life-saving medication, healthcare and other essential support. We are liaising with the UN, ICRC and others to further assess humanitarian need in the region. We welcome Azerbaijan's decision to grant UN access into Nagorno-Karabakh and encourage them to continue to support international efforts to address humanitarian need. We also welcome Armenian government and international support to the 100,000 or more people displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenia.

United Arab Emirates: Arms Trade

Vicky Ford: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what diplomatic steps his Department is taking to help prevent weapons being supplied to the Rapid Support Forces by the United Arab Emirates via (a) Chad and (b) other neighbouring countries.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK condemns any actions that further fuel the brutal conflict in Sudan. There is a UN Arms Embargo and Sanctions Regime on Darfur, which the UK renewed in March 2023, and which complements a longstanding bilateral UK arms embargo in place for the whole of Sudan. These regimes have been used to constrain the flow of weapons into the country and support efforts to stop those who pose a threat to stability in Darfur. The UN Arms Embargo and Sanctions Regime on Darfur will be reviewed by September 2024. Ministers continue to place emphasis on the importance of neutrality and of supporting a ceasefire and civilian political transition.

Development Aid: British Nationals Abroad

Neil Coyle: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure that people working for international aid organisations overseas with (a) British and (b) duel British nationality are not aiding or supporting proscribed terrorist organisations.

Neil Coyle: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people distributing (a) UK aid and (b) other public funding overseas with (i) British and (ii) duel British nationality are not aiding or supporting proscribed terrorist organisations.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The FCDO has controls in place to ensure that UK aid - and other funds used overseas - goes direct to intended beneficiaries, and for its intended purposes. The FCDO carries out due diligence assessments of UK aid partners to ensure they have procedures in place to manage the risk of aid diversion, including the risk of support to proscribed terrorist groups, as appropriate. All UK aid fund disbursements are overseen by a Senior Responsible Owner who is accountable for ensuring procedures are followed. The FCDO Programme Operating Framework, which sets out the mandatory rules for FCDO programming, was reviewed by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) in 2023. The review, published in April, said that this was the right approach for the FCDO - calling it a credible and appropriate framework. To date, no individual from an International NGO or body corporate has been prosecuted in the UK for terrorism offences relating to humanitarian, development or peacebuilding work.

Somalia: Humanitarian Aid

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent steps his Department has taken to support humanitarian projects in Somalia.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK is a significant donor to the humanitarian crisis in Somalia. This financial year we have allocated £48 million in response to the humanitarian crisis, providing cash support, water and sanitation services, and specialised health and nutrition treatment. This includes £11 million pivoted towards El Niño prevention and response projects as Somalia faces record levels of flooding. At the Global Food Security Summit on 20 November, the UK announced up to £100 million support over the next five years to help communities to re-establish and recover livelihoods and build resilience to future climatic shocks, breaking the cycle of humanitarian crises by investing in resilient, long-lasting change.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Sierra Leone

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how many (a) FCO, (b) DFID and (c) FCDO staff have been deployed to Sierra Leone in each financial year since 2010.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: Data is not held prior to 2014. The number of DFID, FCO and FCDO UK Based staff deployed to Sierra Leone since 2014 is as follows:-SIERRA LEONE DFIDFCO201410-19Fewer than 10201540-49Fewer than 10201620-29Fewer than 10201710-19Fewer than 10201820-29Fewer than 10201920-29Fewer than 10202020-29Fewer than 10 FCDO202120-29202220-29202320-29

British Overseas Territories: Companies

Dame Margaret Hodge: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has had recent discussions with his counterparts in the Overseas Territories on introducing publicly accessible registers of company beneficial ownership by the end of 2023.

David Rutley: We discussed the timeline for implementation of Publicly Accessible Registers of Beneficial Ownership at the Joint Ministerial Council over 14 - 15 November in plenary, in the margins and in bilateral meetings. We have made progress with the majority of the inhabited OTs. Some are yet to confirm precise timelines. Intensive discussions continue with these OTs, led by Ministers. We will inform Parliament of the outcome of those discussions before recess.

Nnamdi Kanu

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether his Department has made representations to the Commonwealth Secretariat on the situation of Nnamdi Kanu.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The Foreign, Development and Commonwealth Office has not had any discussions with the Commonwealth Secretariat regarding Mr Nnamdi Kanu's case. Ministers and officials have raised Nnamdi Kanu's case with the Nigerian authorities on multiple occasions, and will continue to do so. The British High Commissioner in Abuja most recently raised his case with the Nigerian Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi on 24 October.

Nnamdi Kanu

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of using sanctions to help ensure that the Federal Government of Nigeria follows Opinion No. 25/2022 of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, published on 17 August 2022, regarding the release of Nnamdi Kanu.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will take the steps we consider most effective regarding our consular assistance to Mr Kanu and will keep these under review, as has been done in the past. We do not speculate on future sanctions as doing so can limit their impact.

Sudan: Humanitarian Aid

Vicky Ford: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has had recent discussions with his Sudanese counterpart on (a) travel permissions for international humanitarian relief workers, (b) transport permissions for humanitarian aid and (c) other bureaucratic barriers to delivering humanitarian aid in east Sudan.

Vicky Ford: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has had recent discussions with his (a) UN and (b) other international counterparts on taking steps with the Sudanese government to (i) provide travel permissions for international humanitarian relief workers, (ii) provide transport permissions for humanitarian aid and (iii) tackle other bureaucratic barriers to delivering humanitarian aid in east Sudan.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK condemns the lack of humanitarian access into and across Sudan, as a result of the actions of the parties to the conflict. Lack of security remains the biggest constraint for international agencies and national NGOs seeking to deliver much-needed life-saving assistance. We continue to raise humanitarian access, including bureaucratic and administrative impediments, with the warring parties, our international partners and in international fora such as the UN.

Sri Lanka: Ports

Stewart Malcolm McDonald: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with reference to the Answer of 21 November 2023 to Question 1621 on Sri Lanka: Ports, how much UK funding was allocated for infrastructure projects that received funding under the Belt and Road Initiative in each of the last 10 years.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: There is no formal definition of what is or what is not a Belt and Road Initiative project. China is an important source of trade and investment for many countries, but we recognise that this also presents risks. China cannot be ignored, but we must be clear eyed. In HMG's engagement, we will always work to protect ourselves, our democracy and our economy. HMG's policy on China is set out in the Integrated Review Refresh.

Australia: China

Jim Shannon: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent discussions he has had with his Australian counterpart on China.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: As set out in the Integrated Review Refresh, the UK is committed to and strategically focussed on the Indo-Pacific. Our close partnership with Australia is an important part of this, and we regularly discuss Indo-Pacific collaboration at senior official and Ministerial levels. We work closely with Australia as members of the Commonwealth, Five Eyes, the G20 and the UN. HMG's policy on China is set out in the Integrated Review Refresh.

Tuberculosis: Disease Control

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps he is taking to help (a) the WHO and (b) international counterparts end tuberculosis by 2030.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK supports the WHO's End TB strategy, including through our £340 million investment in the WHO (2020-2024). The UK contributed actively to the agreement of the political declaration at this year's High Level Meeting on Tuberculosis (TB) at the UN General Assembly, where the UK was represented by Lord Ahmad. We pledged £1 billion to the 7th replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria which will provide TB treatment and care to more than 1 million people. We also support work to bring down the prices of key TB products, tackle barriers to access, and test out innovative approaches to delivering TB diagnosis and treatment. Support includes funding to the TB Reach Initiative and the TB Alliance Product Development Partnership.

Department for Education

Special Educational Needs: Standards

Ashley Dalton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure equitable standards of SEND provision in (a) urban and (b) rural communities.

David Johnston: In the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, the department set out plans to build a consistent national SEND and AP system which parents and carers can trust, easily navigate, and have confidence in, whether they live in an urban or rural area.The foundation for the new nationally consistent SEND and AP system will be new evidenced-based National Standards for early and accurate identification of need, and timely access to support to meet those needs. The standards will include clarifying the types of support that should be ordinarily available in mainstream settings and who is responsible for securing the support.This will help families, practitioners and providers understand what support every child or young person should be receiving from early years through to further education, no matter where they live or what their needs are. By the end of 2025 the department will publish a significant proportion of the National Standards.New local SEND and AP partnerships will support this work by bringing together Education, Health and Care partners with local government to produce evidence-based Local Area Inclusion Plans setting out how to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND and in AP in the local area, in line with National Standards.The department is testing and refining reforms through the £70 million Change Programme to collect evidence about what works for children and young people with SEND and their families at a local level. The department is working with 32 local authorities and their local areas in each of the nine regions. To form a Child Protection Plan, in the majority of cases, a lead local authority will work in partnership with up to three neighbouring local authorities which will ensure impact is spread across a range of local areas, with differing levels of performance and demographics.

Special Educational Needs: Rural Areas

Ashley Dalton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure there is adequate funding for the provision of SEND services in rural schools.

David Johnston: Funding for specialist Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) services is allocated to local authorities through the high needs funding block of their Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG).Local authorities are responsible for deciding how much of that funding to spend on appropriate local SEND services, to ensure there is effective support for the education of children and young people with SEND in all local schools, including rural schools.Nationally, high needs funding is increasing to over £10.5 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, which is an increase of over 60% since the 2019/20 allocations. The department has already announced provisional 2024/25 high needs allocations for local authorities, and Lancashire County Council’s allocation is £203 million, which is over £10 million more than the Council will receive for 2023/24.

Carers: Finance

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to Answer of 20 November 2023 to Question 755 on Carers: Finance, how her Department plans to spend the remaining £6 million committed in February 2023.

David Johnston: In February, the department announced £200 million funding alongside the ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ strategy, which is being used to address urgent issues over this Spending Review period and set the path for longer-term reform. As these plans have been implemented, there have been a number of changes to the balance of funding across reform programme areas including increases to the fostering pathfinder. The total £200 million announced in February 2023 will be directed to reform activity as detailed in ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’.

Special Educational Needs

Bambos Charalambous: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what reforms on (a) mediation and (b) choice of education placement for children and young people who have an Education, Health and Care plan are being tested as part of the SEND Change Programme.

Bambos Charalambous: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to strengthen mediation through the SEND Change Programme; and what outcome measures will be used to determine the success of those changes.

Bambos Charalambous: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish the new national template for Education, Health and Care plans that is being tested by SEND Change Programme Partnerships.

David Johnston: Mediation proposals are being tested through the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Change Programme. These tests aim to develop a best practice model for delivering high-quality mediation provisions.The proposals being tested include asking local authorities to: signpost new family friendly guidance on mediation in their local offer; take part in pre-mediation meetings; respond to requests for mediation with available dates within 5 working days; and, where possible, to use mediators listed on the Civil Mediation Council/College of Mediators SEND register.The department will carefully consider the feedback and findings from the Change Programme. The department expects this to include data on mediation timeliness as well as feedback on outcomes and families' experiences of the process. Testing will also help to better understand the required capacity to deliver timely, high-quality mediation and to identify any delivery challenges.The department is also testing an advisory tailored list in participating local authorities through the Change Programme to gain feedback on the best way to support families as they choose a placement. To illustrate choice, participating families will receive detailed and relevant information about placements that could be suitable to meet the needs of their child, but there will be no change to the existing statutory framework and their existing rights will be unaffected. The department will use the Change Programme as an opportunity to learn how tailored lists can best support family experiences as well as their potential to support local authorities to manage their placements and provision.Finally, the Education Health and Care (EHC) plan template that local authorities on the Change Programme are now preparing to pilot was extensively coproduced with a wide range of SEND experts, including families themselves. Following this period of testing, the department will finalise and publish the EHC plan template.

Childcare: Recruitment

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education to the question from the hon. Member for Walthamstow of 23 October 2023, Official Report, column 585, what metrics her Department plans to use to measure the success of the childcare staff recruitment campaign.

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education to the question from the hon. Member for Walthamstow of 23 October 2023, Official Report, column 585, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the expansion of subsidised childcare hours on the number of childcare staff required to meet demand.

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education on 23 October 2023, Official Report, column 585, what discussions her Department had with relevant stakeholders when designing the childcare staff recruitment campaign; and if she will publish (a) summaries of those discussions and (b) other evidence her Department received on the establishment of the recruitment campaign.

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education on 23 October 2023, Official Report, column 585, what estimates her Department made when developing the childcare staff recruitment campaign of the (a) number and (b) proportion of childcare staff that are likely to leave the sector in the next three years.

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education on 23 October 2023, Official Report, column 585, what the budget will be of the childcare staff recruitment campaign in each of the next three financial years.

David Johnston: The campaign budget for the 2023/24 financial year is £6.5 million. The budget for future years is still to be confirmed. The department intends to measure the awareness amongst its target audience of the following: the opportunities available in early years, positive perceptions of careers in the sector and consideration of applying for early years roles. The department also intends to measure visits to a dedicated website where people will be able to find out more about early years, and the number who go on to take action on the site, for example in accessing the Find a Job platform, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/find-a-job. The departmental campaign strategy is based on in depth analysis of the target audience and has been reviewed by a variety of key early years stakeholders and setting managers and staff. Overall, the number of paid early years staff has remained stable in recent years. Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey 2022 data shows that between 2021 and 2022, the total number of early years staff increased by 5,900 (or 2 per cent), from 328,500 to 334,400. The survey data is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/childcare-and-early-years-provider-survey/2022. The Provider Survey publication included estimates for the number of staff that were recruited by group-based and school-based providers in the last twelve months, as well as estimates of the number of number of staff who have left these providers in the last twelve months. However, these estimates do not distinguish between those who have joined or left from other early years providers, and those who joined or left from outside the sector. The department will publish updated estimates for the above in December, as well as new data on the destination of leaving staff members. The estimates of the approximate number of additional staff, required to meet demand from the new entitlements will be published in due course.

Carers

Alistair Strathern: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of support for kinship carers (a) nationally and (b) in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.

David Johnston: As part of the commitments outlined in 'Stable Homes, Built on Love', the department made a commitment to implement or explore each of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care’s recommendations on kinship care. The department is in the final stages of drafting its kinship strategy, which outlines plans to enhance support for all kinship families in England. This strategy will complement the existing support initiatives offered by the department, such as the peer-to-peer support service. Following on from the progress and positive impact of the peer-to-peer support contract, the department will deliver a package of training and support that all kinship carers in England can access if they wish to, regardless of whether they have a legal order in place. This will be implemented from Spring 2024. Statutory guidance issued to local authorities already makes it clear that children and young people should receive the support that they and their carers need to safeguard and promote their welfare. There is no limit on the level of support, including financial support, that local authorities can provide. All local authorities should have in place clear eligibility criteria in relation to the provision of support services. The department has committed to work across government to explore possible additional workplace entitlements for kinship carers with a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) or Child Arrangement Order (CAO), as well as exploring the case for mandating a financial allowance for kinship carers with SGOs and CAOs in every local authority. Further details will be shared in due course.

Family Hubs

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to deliver family hubs in every area of the country.

David Johnston: The government is investing around £300 million through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme to enable 75 local authorities to create family hubs, and to improve vital services to give every baby the best start in life.The local authorities taking part in the programme were selected by targeting areas with the highest levels of deprivation. An additional £28 million has also been made available to these local authorities to improve early language development, by supporting parents to help their children learn at home. This builds on the government’s previous investment to champion family hubs, including a £12 million transformation fund which will open family hubs in a further 13 local authorities in England.This investment in family hubs is significant. It will have a wide reach across the country, improving outcomes for thousands of babies, children, and families.The department’s ambition is to see family hubs open across the country. However, it is crucial that the department focuses on delivering well in the local areas that it is currently funding. The department will continue to build the model and evidence base, whilst working with the National Centre for Family Hubs to champion and spread good practice for all local authorities. The evidence and learning from this investment will help to improve services across England where they are most needed and help to build the evidence based for future investment decisions.

Carers

Alistair Strathern: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to publish the National Kinship strategy by the end of 2023.

David Johnston: The department is committed to delivering this strategy this year and to improving outcomes for children in kinship care. This is part of a wider, once in a generation reset to the children’s social care system, as set out in ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which aims to rebalance the children’s social care system away from costly crisis intervention, towards meaningful and effective help for families, to deliver better outcomes for children.

Schools: Buildings

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 19 October 2023 to Question 200806 on Schools: Buildings, what her Department's unallocated budget is for the 2023-24 financial year; and how much and what proportion of that unallocated budget has been ringfenced to support schools affected by reinfoced autoclaved aerated concrete.

Damian Hinds: The department will always put the safety and wellbeing of children and staff in education settings at the heart of its policy decisions. The 2021 Spending Review announced a total of £19 billion of capital funding to support the education sector. As part of this, the department’s capital budget is £7 billion for 2023/24. The department will spend what it takes to keep pupils safe and will fund emergency mitigation work needed to make school and college buildings with RAAC safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary. Where schools and colleges need additional help with revenue costs, the department expects all reasonable requests will be approved. The department will fund refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, to remove RAAC from the school estate. Schools and colleges will either be offered capital grants or rebuilding projects through the School Rebuilding Programme. The department will set out further details for affected schools and colleges in due course. The department’s immediate support will be managed from unallocated departmental budgets. This will not have an impact on existing programmes. The department will provide further information about funding at relevant points in due course. The department reviews how the capital budget is allocated on an ongoing basis and updates its annual budget via Parliament twice a year through the Main and Supplementary estimates process, which sets out the expected budget by area of spend.

Schools: Asbestos

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November 2023 to Question 22 on Schools: Asbestos, what information her Department holds on levels of asbestos in Harrow schools.

Damian Hinds: Buildings erected from 2000 have not used asbestos in their construction. Most older buildings will still have asbestos present in them, although some have undertaken asbestos removal programmes. Asbestos ‘dutyholders’ for schools, who usually include local authorities and academy trusts, must comply with the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. These require dutyholders to have a robust asbestos management plan, train staff, and maintain an asbestos register detailing location, type, and condition of asbestos in their buildings. The department takes the safety of children and those who work with them incredibly seriously, which is why we expect all local authorities, governing bodies and academy trusts to have robust plans in place to manage asbestos in school buildings effectively, in line with their legal duties. The asbestos management assurance process (AMAP) was a survey launched by the department in March 2018 to understand the steps schools and those responsible for their estate were taking to manage asbestos. Data published in 2019 reflecting returns from 88.4% of schools showed that 80% of schools had some asbestos present in their estate. The department can confirm that from responses captured, the position in Harrow schools suggests a slightly lower percentage than the national picture, though we continue to gather data in this area through the Condition Data Collection 2 (CDC2) programme. The 2019 AMAP report is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5f28153ed3bf7f1b17facda7/AMAP_Report_2019.pdf. The department expects current percentages to reduce over time as schools are rebuilt or refurbished, and asbestos is removed. Information on how schools are managing asbestos is now being collected via the department’s CDC2 programme, which started in 2021 and will complete in 2026, and is expected to cover all state-funded schools. The department follows the Health and Safety Executive’s advice that, provided asbestos-containing materials are in good condition, and unlikely to be disturbed, it is generally safest to manage them in place. Where asbestos-containing materials are likely to be disturbed by maintenance works or daily use of the building, and cannot be easily protected, schools should have them removed.

Relationships and Sex Education: Public Consultation

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department's planned timescale is for publishing its consultation on relationship, health, and sex education in schools.

Damian Hinds: The department has brought forward the review of the relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance, including an independent expert advisory panel, which will advise my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, on the introduction of minimum ages for certain subjects. More information about the panel is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/terms-of-reference-for-review-panel-on-rshe.The work of the expert panel will inform the public consultation, which will be published at the earliest opportunity, prior to publishing revised guidance in 2024.

Music: Education

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the cost to the public purse of (a) consultations and (b) legal advice on proposals to change the structure of music education hubs.

Damian Hinds: Music Hubs have a vital role in ensuring children and young people across the country can access high quality music education. The government values the many achievements that the existing Music Hub network has made since 2012.As part of the refreshed National Plan for Music Education, published in June 2022, the government set out its intention to re-compete the hubs lead organisation (HLO) role and reduce the number of HLOs. The department also committed to work with Arts Council England (ACE), as the fundholder of the Music Hubs programme, to engage with existing and potential HLOs to inform this process. At the invitation of the department, ACE subsequently undertook a two-stage consultation in early 2023. They then published the findings of the consultation and announced the change from 118 to 43 HLOs, and subsequently launched the ongoing investment programme. The investment programme is due to conclude next year, with newly competed HLOs commencing from September 2024.

Department for Education: China

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether senior officials from her Department have travelled to China since January 2019.

Damian Hinds: Yes, senior officials have travelled to China since January 2019.

Class Sizes

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to introduce statutory class size limits in key stage two and above.

Damian Hinds: Schools are free to decide their class sizes (other than infant classes), in a way that is consistent with raising attainment and helping pupils to achieve their potential. The assessment of the evidence by the Education Endowment Foundation found some evidence for additional benefits of smaller class sizes with younger children, suggesting that smaller class sizes may be a more effective approach during the early stages of primary school. For older year groups, however, the impact of reducing class sizes on educational attainment is low compared to the high cost of doing so. More information can be found here: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/reducing-class-size. Research by Professor John Hattie found that reducing class sizes ranked 186 out of 250 on influences on pupil achievement. More information on this can be found online at: https://visible-learning.org/. Despite an increase of more than a million pupils in state-funded primary and secondary schools since 2010, at secondary level, average class sizes remain low at only 22.4 pupils, whilst the average primary class has remained broadly stable at 26.7 pupils.

Schools: Folkestone and Hythe

Damian Collins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding has been provided for school buildings in the Folkestone and Hythe district for each year since 2010; and how much funding was received by each school in the district in each of those years.

Damian Hinds: The department has allocated over £15 billion since 2015 to keep schools safe and operational, including £1.8 billion in 2023/24. Between 2015/16, when the current condition funding system was introduced, and 2023/24, Kent local authority has been allocated a total of £170,514,468 in school condition allocations (SCA), devolved formula capital (DFC) and one-off funding allocations to improve the condition of its maintained schools, including those in Folkestone and Hythe. Larger multi-academy trusts and voluntary aided school bodies (which cross local authority and parliamentary constituency boundaries) will also have been allocated condition funding in respect of the schools for which they are responsible. Funding allocations prior to 2015 are visible on the National Archives website available at: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/*/https:/www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-allocations. It is for local authorities, academy trusts and voluntary-aided school bodies to prioritise School Condition Allocations across their schools based on local knowledge of need. In addition, 32 projects at 11 schools within the constituency have received funding through the Condition Improvement Fund and two schools were included in the Priority School Building Programme. Funding allocations for 2023/24 are available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-capital-funding.

Schools: Asbestos

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete also have asbestos on their estate.

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the schools listed in her Department's publication entitled Education settings with confirmed reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete and mitigations in place as of 16 October 2023, how many and what proportion of the schools listed as having all pupils in face-to-face education are (a) utilising space in other schools and (b) merging classes across schools to deliver that education.

Damian Hinds: An updated list of schools and colleges with confirmed cases of RAAC was published on 16 October 2023, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reinforced-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-raac-management-information.Asbestos ‘duty holders’ for schools, who usually include local authorities and academy trusts, must comply with the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. Information on duty holders is available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/duty.htm#who. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regulates schools’ compliance with legislation to manage their asbestos safely. These require duty holders to have a robust asbestos management plan, train staff, and maintain an asbestos register detailing location, type, and condition of asbestos in their buildings.Where asbestos is present in a building that has RAAC, remediation activity could disturb it, duty holders must identify, assess, and manage asbestos risk. They must share any information on the location, type, and condition of asbestos with anyone who is liable to disturb it, such as contractors or the emergency services. The HSE has published a comprehensive guide to managing asbestos in premises to help duty holders, which is available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg227.htm. Where asbestos needs to be removed as part of work to mitigate RAAC, based on professional advice, the department will work closely with responsible bodies to help them do so.The department is providing significant support to schools and colleges. Every school and college with confirmed RAAC is assigned dedicated support from our team of 80 caseworkers who work with them to assess what support is needed and implement mitigations plans that are right for them. Schools and colleges with confirmed RAAC are also being supported by the department’s ten Regional Directors and their teams across the country.Project delivery teams are on site to support schools and colleges to minimise the disruption to children and young people’s learning, whether that is finding short-term accommodation options or designing and putting in place structural solutions for affected spaces. Mitigation plans could include using other spaces on the school site, in nearby schools or elsewhere in the local area, until structural works are carried out or temporary buildings are installed. A bespoke plan is put in place to ensure that each school and college receives the support that suits their circumstances. Project delivery, property, and technical experts are on hand to support schools to put face-to-face education measures in place.Responsibility for keeping buildings safe and well-maintained lies with schools and their responsible bodies. The department supports them in meeting their responsibilities through condition programmes, guidance, and funding, including £1.8 billion of capital funding in 2023/24, as part of over £15 billion allocated since 2015.The department is providing significant support to schools and colleges to ensure children remain in face-to-face education or are returned to it as soon as possible. This includes providing all schools and colleges where RAAC is confirmed with a dedicated caseworker to work with them to assess what support is needed and implement mitigations plans that are right for them with a clear focus on getting children back to full time face-to-face education as quickly as possible. These arrangements change quickly and so any data regarding mitigations would soon be out of date.

Schools: Air Conditioning

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of fitting schools with air cleaning technology.

Damian Hinds: Officials in the department sit on the working group for a project looking at the implications and potential benefits of fitting primary schools with air cleaning technology: the Bradford classroom air cleaning technology (class-ACT) trial. This was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and managed through the UK Health Security Agency. The study is run from the Centre for Applied Education Research, which is based at the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK. The trial has concluded, and the academic leads intend to publish the results in a peer-reviewed journal in due course.There is strong evidence from laboratory studies of the efficacy of high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter air cleaning units at removing airborne viruses from the air. Although they help improve air quality, air cleaning units do not reduce CO2 levels or improve ventilation so it’s important that they are not used as a substitute for ventilation or a reason to reduce it.The department recognises that good ventilation helps to create a healthy indoor environment for staff and pupils. Letting fresh air into indoor spaces can help remove air that contains virus particles which reduces the risk of respiratory illnesses, as well as improves pupils’ alertness and concentration.Between September 2021 and April 2023, the department delivered over 700,000 CO2 monitors to over 45,000 state-funded schools and colleges. This means that all eligible school and college now has an assigned CO2 monitor for every teaching and childcare space to help them manage their ventilation.For schools and colleges that identified spaces with sustained high CO2 readings (1500ppm or more) through their monitors, an application process was made available for department funded HEPA filter air cleaning units. This policy was informed by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies Environmental Modelling Group which advises that air cleaning units have limited benefit in spaces that are already adequately ventilated and should only be considered where the ventilation is inadequate and cannot be easily improved. The department has subsequently delivered over 9,000 air cleaning units to over 1,300 settings between January 2022 and April 2023.

Apprentices: Music

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of apprenticeships in the music industry in each academic year since 2018-19.

Robert Halfon: The most recent statistics on apprenticeship starts by industry characteristics cover the academic years 2012/13 to 2020/21 and are published on GOV.UK at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-in-england-by-industry-characteristics. These data use the Office for National Statistics’ two-digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) of the UK workforce.There is not a two-digit SIC code for ‘the music industry’. The following table shows the number of apprenticeships starts covered by the two-digit SIC code for ‘motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities’ in England between the 2018/19 and 2020/21 academic years.Academic YearApprenticeship starts2018/193802019/201702020/21190 Data for the 2021/22 and 2022/23 academic years will be published in June 2024 and June 2025, respectively.

Educational Institutions: Concrete

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many officials within her Department are working on the management of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete across schools and colleges.

Damian Hinds: The department will allocate whatever resources are necessary to support schools and colleges to manage and remove RAAC from their buildings. Every school and college with confirmed RAAC is assigned dedicated support from the department’s team of 80 caseworkers who work with them to assess what support is needed and implement mitigations plans that are right for them. Schools and colleges with confirmed RAAC are also being supported by the department’s ten Regional Directors and their teams across the country.Project delivery teams are on site to support schools and colleges to minimise the disruption to children and young people’s learning. A bespoke plan is put in place to ensure that each school and college receives the support that suits their circumstances. Project delivery, property, and technical experts are on hand to support schools to put face to face education measures in place.Members of staff across the department work on RAAC across a range of policy and delivery areas as required. In addition to 80 dedicated caseworkers and a central co-ordinating team, RAAC work is embedded and prioritised across teams and functions as necessary. It is therefore not possible to give an accurate figure specifically for numbers of staff working on RAAC.

Music: Finance

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications have been received for funding from the music hub investment programme (a) in total and (b) in each geographic area as of 22 November 2023.

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of contacting successful applicants to the Music Hub Investment Programme before April 2024.

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of state-funded secondary schools had their own music performance facilities in (a) 2010, (b) 2015, (c) 2019 and (d) 2022.

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her Department’s planned timescale for launching its Cultural Education Plan is.

Damian Hinds: Arts Council England is leading the Music Hubs investment programme at the invitation of the department. As the programme is ongoing, information about the number of applications is commercially sensitive so cannot be published. The plan is for applicants to be informed of the outcome of the investment programme by April 2024, although they will be informed earlier if this is possible. In relation to music performance facilities in secondary schools, the department does not collect this information. The National Plan for Music Education, published in June 2022, sets out the department’s strategy to 2030 and maintains the government’s commitment to high quality music education for all. Starting in September 2023, all state-funded schools are asked to teach music to 5- to 14-year-olds for at least an hour a week each term, supported by co-curricular learning and musical experiences. It is for schools to decide what facilities are required to meet this expectation, including the specific expectation in the Plan in relation to space for rehearsals and individual practice. In relation to the Cultural Education Plan, the department has been working closely with the Department for Media, Culture and Sport, and has conducted extensive engagement with external stakeholders across the education and cultural sectors and appointed an Expert Advisory Panel in July 2023. Both the Panel and the stakeholder engagement are helping to inform the development of the Plan and its emerging proposals. The department will publish the Cultural Education Plan in the coming months.

Teachers: Food Technology

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number food technology teachers.

Damian Hinds: The latest School Workforce Census showed that during November 2022, there were over 468,000 full time equivalent (FTE) teachers in state-funded schools in England, which is an increase of 27,000 (6%) since 2010. This makes it the highest number of FTE teachers on record since the School Workforce Census began in 2010. The department’s teacher recruitment and retention reforms are aimed at supporting teacher recruitment and retention across all subjects, including food technology. The department accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and leaders. This means that teachers and leaders in maintained schools will receive a pay award of 6.5%. This is the highest pay award for teachers in over thirty years. The award also delivers the manifesto commitment of a minimum £30,000 starting salary for school teachers in all regions in England, with a pay award of up to 7.1% for new teachers outside London. The department knows there is further to go to improve recruitment in some subjects. That is why the department has put in place a range of measures, including bursaries. For those starting Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in the 2024/25 academic year, £25,000 tax-free bursaries are being offered in design & technology, which includes food technology. Over the past two years, the design and technology bursary has increased from £15,000 to £25,000. The department has created an entitlement to at least three years of structured training, support and professional development for all new teachers, underpinned by the ITT Core Content Framework and the Early Career Framework. Together, these ensure that new teachers will benefit from at least three years of evidence-based training, across ITT and into their induction, to ensure teachers are better supported at the start of career. The department has published a range of resources to help address teacher workload and wellbeing, which impact retention. This includes the school workload reduction toolkit, developed alongside school leaders, which is a helpful resource for schools to review and reduce workload. The toolkit is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/school-workload-reduction-toolkit. The department has also worked in partnership with the education sector and mental health experts to create the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter, which we are encouraging schools to sign up to as a shared commitment to promote staff wellbeing. The charter is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter.

Treasury

Floods: Northern Ireland

Hilary Benn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his Department's press release entitled £15 million announced for flood recovery in Northern Ireland, published on 8 November 2023, whether the distribution of that funding will require his Department's approval in the absence of the Northern Ireland Executive.

Laura Trott: In the absence of a Northern Ireland Executive, the UK Government announced up to £15 million of support would be made available to respond to flooding in areas of Northern Ireland affected by recent storms. This funding will be delivered by the Northern Ireland Civil Service and Accounting Officer responsibilities will rest within the appropriate officials in the Northern Ireland Civil Service; the UK Government will support them in doing so. Budget changes will formally occur at Supplementary Estimates 2023-24.

Eat Out To Help Out Scheme

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the focus groups conducted by Hanbury Strategy in June 2020 on behalf of his Department for (a) over-40s and (b) under-40s in the (i) North East and (ii) South West were asked to provide their opinions on the (A) idea behind and (B) messaging around the Eat Out To Help Out Scheme subsequently announced in his predecessor's Plan for Jobs statement on 8 July 2020.

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the focus groups conducted by Hanbury Strategy in June and July 2020 on behalf of his Department for (a) over-35s and (b) under-35s in the (i) West Midlands and (ii) East Midlands were asked to provide their opinions on the (A) idea behind and (B) messaging around the Eat Out To Help Out Scheme subsequently announced in his predecessor's Plan for Jobs statement on 8 July 2020.

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the online opinion polls conducted on behalf of his Department by Hanbury Strategy in the weeks commencing (a) 15 June, (b) 22 June, (c) 29 June and (d) 6 July 2020 asked questions relating to the idea behind the Eat Out To Help Out Scheme subsequently announced in his predecessor's Plan for Jobs statement on 8 July 2020.

Gareth Davies: Throughout the pandemic, the Government acted to save lives and livelihoods, prevent the NHS being overwhelmed and deliver a world-leading vaccine rollout which protected the nation. The Government also took decisive action to respond to this historic shock to the UK economy, protecting jobs to ensure the economy could recover more smoothly. The Government has set up the covid inquiry to examine all such matters relating to the response to the pandemic. It will now be for the inquiry to continue with its work, as directed by the inquiry’s chair. It would not be appropriate to provide a running commentary on the issues being considered while the public hearings are ongoing. The Government is committed to learning from the covid inquiry’s findings, which will play a key role in informing the government’s planning and preparations for the future.

Inheritance Tax

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of abolishing inheritance tax.

Nigel Huddleston: The Autumn Statement 2023 focused on cutting National Insurance to ensure people keep more of what they earn, but the Government keeps all taxes under review.

Revenue and Customs: Staff

Justin Madders: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether HMRC staff receive commission on sums collected in tax arrears.

Nigel Huddleston: HMRC does not operate a commission-based reward scheme for its workforce.

Hospitality Industry: VAT

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of reducing VAT for the hospitality sector.

Nigel Huddleston: Since the start of the pandemic, over £37 billion has been provided to the tourism, leisure and hospitality sectors in the form of grants, loans and tax breaks.  While there are no plans to reduce the rate of VAT paid by hospitality businesses, the Government keeps all taxes under review.

Schools: Finance

Ian Byrne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the analysis of school funding published by School Cuts; and whether his Department plans to increase funding for schools in 2024-2025.

Laura Trott: This Government has continually prioritised school funding.Funding for schools will total over £57.7 billion this year – a rise of over £3.9 billion compared to 2022-23, on top of a £4 billion cash increase last year. That is a 16% increase in just two years.Funding for schools in 2024-25 will increase again, to £59.6 billion – the highest ever level in real terms per pupil.The Department for Education provides additional support for schools, including an extensive programme to help them make the most of the funding available to them.

Cost of Living Payments: Folkestone and Hythe

Damian Collins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of cost of living support has been accounted for by spending in Folkestone and Hythe constituency in each year since 2019.

Laura Trott: Since 2022, the Government has taken significant action to support struggling families with the high cost of living in all constituencies. This includes the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG), the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS), the £150 Council Tax rebate, fuel and alcohol duty cuts and successive extensions of the Household Support fund, Cost of Living Payments and benefit uprating to millions of the most vulnerable. Taken together, total support over 2022-2025 to help households with the high cost of living is worth £104 billion – an average of £3,700 per UK household.

Mortgages: Mid Bedfordshire

Alistair Strathern: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of (a) interest rates and (b) incomes on the number of mortgage defaults in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.

Bim Afolami: The pricing and availability of mortgages is a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene. However, we recognise this is a concerning time for mortgage borrowers. The path to lower interest rates is through low inflation. The independent Monetary Policy Committee continues to have the Government’s full support as it takes action to return inflation to target. The Government’s Mortgage Charter - in addition to the significant safeguards already in place - is providing support to vulnerable households; and mortgage arrears and repossessions remain low. Over the last two years, the Government has demonstrated its commitment to supporting the most vulnerable by providing one of the largest support packages in Europe. Taken together, support to households to help with the high cost of living is worth £104 billion over 2022-25 - or £3,700 per UK household on average.

Financial Services: Internet

Emma Hardy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the prevalence of (a) misleading and (b) fraudulent financial advice and services available on the internet.

Emma Hardy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to tackle misleading and fraudulent financial advice and services available on the internet.

Bim Afolami: The Government has taken action to address fraudulent activity being hosted online through the Online Safety Act 2023, which includes a new standalone duty requiring large internet firms to remove fraudulent content on their platforms. In addition, the financial promotions regime seeks to ensure that consumers are provided with clear and accurate information that enables them to make appropriate decisions for their individual circumstances. Under this regime, financial promotions communicated by a firm not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must be approved by an FCA-authorised firm, unless the promotion is otherwise subject to an exemption. The Government has worked with the FCA to introduce a financial promotions gateway which gives the regulator greater oversight of the approval of financial promotions and reduces the number of authorised firms able to undertake such approvals. The provision of financial advice is an FCA regulated activity. HM Treasury works closely with the FCA to ensure that this market works fairly for both firms and consumers, and that the advice being provided is of high quality. The Government has also established the Money and Pensions Service to provide free, impartial money and pensions guidance directly to consumers online and by telephone.

Sanctions: Russia

John Healey: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November 2023 to Question 694 on Russia: Defence Equipment, how many (a) allegations have been received, (b) investigations have taken place and (c) penalties have been issued in relation to UK sanctions against Russia since February 2022.

Nigel Huddleston: HMRC has been enforcing sanctions against Russia since 2014. Since increased sanctions were announced on 24 February 2022, HMRC has implemented a number of measures which aim to prevent the exportation and importation of restricted goods and respond to breaches of those sanctions. This includes increased border checks in collaboration with Border Force, trader awareness products and where appropriate the criminal investigation of any breaches, with a view to achieving an enforcement outcome such as a fine or prosecution. HMRC is conducting multiple ongoing investigations into credible reports of sanctions and export control offences, including controls on the supply of defence equipment to Russia and other countries. These investigations can take a year or more to conclude. The department does not comment on individual investigations. Since February 2022, HMRC has fined five UK companies through the Compound Settlement scheme for breaches of the UK’s trade sanctions on Russia. Three of these fines have been published in the Notice To Exporters and the other two will be published soon: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/notices-to-exporters#notices-to-exporters-2023.

Self-assessment: Fines

Neale Hanvey: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) cancelling and (b) refunding penalties issued for late tax returns in cases where there is no tax due.

Nigel Huddleston: I refer the Honourable Member to the reply given to the Honourable Member for St Ives on 11 September 2023 to PQ UIN 198150.

Members: Correspondence

Dame Angela Eagle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when HMRC plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Wallasey of 13 October 2023 on an identity theft matter relating to a tax rebate.

Nigel Huddleston: The correspondence was received in HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) on 16th October 2023. HMRC apologises for the delay. They replied on 23rd November 2023.

National Insurance Credits

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people (a) applied for and (b) received Specified Adult Childcare credits in each of the last three years.

Nigel Huddleston: The table below shows the total number of applications received for Specified Adult Childcare (SAC) credits in each of the last three years, and numbers that are approved and rejected. Applications for SAC credits can be made from the October following the tax year being applied for. An application for SAC credits can only be successful where there is a claim for Child Benefit and all other eligibility criteria are met.These figures have been taken from management information available at this time and are not official statistics. This means that they have not been subjected to full Quality Assurance procedures. SAC reporting yearApplications approvedOct 2022 -Sept 2322,575Oct 2021 - Sept 2217,329Oct 2020 – Sept 2115,927

Protective Clothing: VAT

Patricia Gibson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of exempting air jackets for motorcyclists from VAT.

Nigel Huddleston: Whilst there are currently no plans to remove VAT on motorcycle air jackets, the Government remains committed to ensuring the safety of motorcyclists. For example, motorcycle helmets, which satisfy the requirements of regulation 8(2) of the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations 2002, are zero-rated for VAT. Further information can be found here: Protective equipment (VAT Notice 701/23) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) VAT has been designed as a broad-based tax on consumption, and the twenty per cent standard rate applies to the vast majority of goods and services, including motorcycle air jackets. While there are exceptions to the standard rate, these have always been strictly limited by both legal and fiscal considerations. VAT is the UK’s third largest tax forecast to raise £173.3 billion in 2023/24, helping to fund key spending priorities such as important public services, including the NHS, education and defence. The Government keeps all taxes under review and welcomes representations to help inform future decisions on tax policy, as part of the tax policy making cycle and Budget process.

Multinational Companies: Taxation

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his Department's planned timescale is for the implementation of OECD Pillar 2 rules.

Nigel Huddleston: The government has legislated for the Pillar 2 Multinational-Top up Tax and Domestic Top-up Tax to take effect from accounting periods beginning on or after 31 December 2023. As announced at Autumn Statement, the government is implementing the Undertaxed Profits Rule for accounting periods beginning on or after 31 December 2024.

Department for Work and Pensions

Social Security Benefits: Disqualification

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effect of benefit sanctions on affected people's mental health.

Jo Churchill: Claimants must meet certain requirements to receive their UC payment. These will be based on individual and household information and will take account of health, caring responsibilities, ongoing work or volunteering and any earnings. All requirements are set in discussion with the claimant and tailored to their capability and circumstances, making them realistic and achievable. This is the claimant contract they agree to. Those who are in the No Work Related Requirements Group, for example people with a severe mental health condition or disability, are not subject to conditionality requirements and therefore not subject to sanctions. Claimants are given every opportunity to explain why they failed to meet their agreed conditionality requirement before a decision is made. We recognise the importance of understanding how a mental health condition impacts someone’s ability to search for or prepare for work. Claimants are only ever sanctioned if they fail to meet their agreed requirements without good reason. This is a proportionate approach which ensures fairness to the taxpayers. When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good reason, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted. If a claimant disagrees with a decision, they can ask for the decision to be reconsidered and subsequently can appeal against the decision to an independent tribunal. We have a well-established system of hardship payments, available as a safeguard if a claimant demonstrates that they cannot meet their immediate and most essential needs, including accommodation, heating, food and hygiene, as a result of their sanction. No recent assessment has been made on the impact of benefit sanctions on the effect of people’s mental health.

Employment Schemes: Disability

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) undertaken an assessment of the effectiveness of the Intensive Personalised Employment Support programme.

Tom Pursglove: An evaluation of the Intensive Personalised Employment Support programme was commissioned in 2019, and the contract awarded to Ipsos Mori. Work is currently underway. Details of the award may be found here: Intensive Personalised Employment Support (IPES) Programme Research and Evaluation - Contracts Finder.

Employment: Chronic Illnesses and Disability

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement made by the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work on 20 November 2023, HCWS44, what estimate he has made of the completion date for the Health Assessment Channels Trial.

Tom Pursglove: We are currently analysing findings from the Health Assessment Channels Trial to incorporate final outcomes following Mandatory Reconsiderations and Appeals.

Social Security Benefits: Fraud

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with the (a) National Police Chiefs Council and (b) Police Federation on expanding powers of arrest to DWP benefit investigators.

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with the (a) PCS union, (b) Prospect union and (c) First Division Association on expanding powers of arrest to trained DWP benefit investigators.

Tom Pursglove: The Fraud Plan, published in May 2022, sets out the ambitions for the use of the Powers of Arrest for DWP staff when parliamentary time allows. This will be limited solely to use in DWP’s Economic and Serious Organised Crime investigations. To date, DWP have engaged with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and the National Police Lead for Fraud in relation to this policy. We will continue to engage with NPCC and more widely with the police in developing this measure. DWP plans to fully engage with the trade unions prior to the implementation of these powers.

Universal Credit: Dispute Resolution

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many real time information disputes were raised by Universal Credit claimants between 1 January and 31 December 2022.

Jo Churchill: The Real Time Information (RTI) system is working well with over 99% of individual employment records now being reported in real time. In most cases, Real Time Information (RTI), supplied by employers, is an efficient and accurate method of calculating Universal Credit payments. Less than 1% resulted in RTI disputes between 1 January and 31 December 2022, around a fifth of these were found to contain an error by employers - around 0.2% of total RTI returns.

Universal Credit: National Insurance Contributions

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the migration of data from the national insurance system to the universal credit system has completed.

Jo Churchill: HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) do not provide information to the Universal Credit system. The administration of National Insurance Credits is a HMRC function, but every tax year the Department for Work and Pensions sends data on Universal Credit claim dates to HMRC to enable them to apply credits to claimant records. DWP has corrected the Universal Credit data issues for all the cases impacted for the tax years 2017/18 and 2018/19. This data is now being shared with HMRC. Data has also been shared with HMRC for 2019/20, 20/21 and 21/22. DWP expect National Insurance records will be fully updated by HMRC, by April 2024.

Social Security Benefits: Disqualification

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of the imposition of benefit sanctions on levels of demand for other public services.

Jo Churchill: No recent assessment has been made on the impact of benefit sanctions on levels of demand for other public services. Claimants are only ever sanctioned if they fail to meet their agreed requirements without good reason. Claimants are given every opportunity to explain why they failed to meet their agreed conditionality requirement before a decision is made. We have a well-established system of hardship payments, available as a safeguard if a claimant demonstrates that they cannot meet their immediate and most essential needs, including accommodation, heating, food and hygiene, as a result of their sanction. If a claimant disagrees with a decision, they can ask for the decision to be reconsidered and subsequently can appeal against the decision to an independent tribunal.

Universal Credit: Armed Forces

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 12 July 2023 to Question 193037 on Universal Credit: Armed Forces, how many Universal Credit claimants have been identified as (a) serving and (b) having served in the armed forces for the assessment period ending on 1 July 2023.

Jo Churchill: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) started collecting data on the Armed Forces status of Universal Credit (UC) claimants in Great Britain (GB) in April 2021. At first only new claimants were asked about their Armed Forces status. From June 2021 onwards, other UC claimants reporting changes in their work and earnings have also been able to report their status. From July 2021 onwards, UC agents have also been able to record claimants’ Armed Forces status if they are told about this via other means such as journal messages, face-to-face meetings or by telephone. Data coverage continues to improve over time and by July 2023 data was held on the armed forces status of approximately 66% of the GB UC caseload (see table below). It should be noted that Armed forces status is self-reported by claimants and is not verified by the Ministry of Defence or Office for Veterans’ Affairs. A claimant’s status can be recorded as “currently serving”, “served in the past”, “not served” or “prefer not to say”. Data is not collected on the specific branch of the Armed Forces that claimants are serving in or have served in in the past. Data is not held on the total number of UC claimants who are currently serving in the Armed Forces or who have served in the past, but data is held on those who have identified themselves so far. The way the data is collected means the claimants for whom an Armed Forces status is recorded are not representative of the UC caseload as a whole. This means it is not yet possible to produce reliable estimates of the overall number or proportion of UC claimants who are currently serving in the Armed Forces or who have served in the past. Increases in the numbers of claimants with a recorded status of “currently serving” or “served in the past” do not necessarily mean the overall numbers of claimants who are currently serving or have served in the past have increased and may reflect increases in the number of claimants for whom data is held as data coverage improves over time. The table below shows the proportion of the GB UC caseload with a recorded Armed Forces status in July 2023. UC caseload monthProportion of caseload with a recorded statusCurrently servingServed in the pastNot servedPrefer not to sayNo recorded statusJuly 202366%4,00052,0003,900,00030,0002,100,000 Notes:1. Data is not collected on the Armed Forces status of UC claimants in Northern Ireland. The figures provided only relate to Great Britain.2. Figures in the table have been rounded according to the Department’s Official Statistics rounding policy.3. Due to methodological improvements, these figures are based on the Official Statistics UC caseload definition. Some previous figures have used an alternative caseload definition based on assessment period end dates.4. Further information on the caseload definition used for the UC official statistics can be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

Universal Credit: Maladministration

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 November to Question 17 on Universal Credit, if he will estimate the number of working Universal Credit recipients who received an incorrect Universal Credit payment as a result of an employer's incorrect real time information submission to HMRC in the latest month for which data is available.

Jo Churchill: For the last 12 months, UC has received around 29 million RTI feeds to calculate UC payments for those households with employed earnings. Where errors affect UC entitlement, payments are corrected as part of normal business.

Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to ensure that PIP assessors receive adequate training relating to (a) Parkinson’s disease, (b) multiple sclerosis, (c) Crohn’s disease and (d) colitis.

Tom Pursglove: Personal Independence Payment assessments are carried out by qualified health professionals (HPs), who receive comprehensive training in assessing functional capability relating to both physical and mental health conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, and Colitis. HPs have access to a range of resources and experienced clinicians to support them in assessing individuals with specific conditions. Assessment providers engage with medical experts, charities, and relevant stakeholders to strengthen their training programmes. This year’s Health & Disability White Paper committed to developing the skills of HPs. As a result, the department began a proof of concept to match an individual’s primary health condition to a HP who has professional experience in their condition. In addition to their professional experience, HPs will also take part in training to specialise in the functional impacts of specific health conditions.

Training: Chronic Illnesses and Disability

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the written ministerial statement by the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work of 20 November 2023, HCWS44, what training his Department provides to Employment and Health Practitioners.

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the written ministerial statement by the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work of 20 November 2023, HCWS44, which 13 areas have been chosen as test sites for the Employment and Health Discussion.

Tom Pursglove: The Employment and Health Discussion (EHD) is a voluntary service available to claimants with a disability and/or long-term health condition and is a discussion with a claimant about their health situation, any barriers it presents in moving towards work, and how to overcome them. It is not part of the assessment process and takes place before the Work Capability Assessment. In addition to the medical qualifications that the Employment and Health Practitioners hold, the DWP has provided specific theory and practical EHD training sessions, alongside mandatory DWP training, for example, data protection, security and Universal Credit. The EHD was first piloted from Leeds Health Model Office in 2022, and has been expanded to Aberdare, Bradford, Chelmsford, Doncaster, Durham, Hull, Lancaster, Newcastle, Norwich, Sunderland, Wigan and York.

Local Housing Allowance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Local Housing Allowance for enabling access to housing for claimants who are (a) disabled and (b) not disabled.

Mims Davies: Local Housing Allowance policy is reviewed annually by the Secretary of State. As announced in the Autumn Statement, from April 2024 the Government will be investing £1.2 billion increasing LHA rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This significant investment will ensure 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit will gain on average, nearly £800 per year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024/25. 50% of households receiving housing support have one disabled person in the household. The LHA policy does also allow for an additional room to support the needs of disabled people who meet the qualifying criteria. This applies where, by virtue of their disability, a member of the household is not able to share a bedroom or requires and receives overnight care on a regular basis from a non-resident carer. For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and need further support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.7 billion in DHP funding to local authorities. Overall, the Government is providing total support of over £104 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help households and individuals with cost of living pressures.

Local Housing Allowance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the impact of trends in rental costs on the ability of people eligible for the Local Housing Allowance to afford housing.

Mims Davies: The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions reviews Local Housing Allowance annually and in doing so considers the impact of rental costs against the wider fiscal context. In 2021/22 the Government spent almost £30 billion to support renters in both the private and social rented sector. This is forecast to rise to £31 billion in 2023/24. As announced in the Autumn Statement, from April 2024 the Government will be investing £1.2 billion to increase Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This significant investment will ensure 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit will gain on average, nearly £800 per year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024/25. For those who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs and need further support. Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities. Since 2011 the Government has provided nearly £1.7 billion in DHP funding to local authorities. Overall, the Government is providing total support of over £104 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help households and individuals with cost of living pressures.

Workplace Pensions

Alberto Costa: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring (a) pension companies to hold a consultation when considering closing a defined benefit pension scheme and (b) independent assessment of the potential closure of such a scheme.

Paul Maynard: The legal requirements for employers on certain changes to occupational pension schemes are detailed in The Pensions Act of 2004. This states that larger employers with 50 or more workers are required to consult with affected members or their representatives about proposed significant changes to their pension scheme, including closure, before implementing the change. These requirements ensure that scheme members are aware of the change and the impact on their future pension, and that they have an opportunity to comment. The Pensions Regulator provides information for employers on closing a pension scheme to new members or future accruals and winding up a scheme at their website including detailed regulatory guidance and can be found at https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/employers/managing-a-scheme/closing-your-scheme.

Pensioners: Poverty

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to help tackle pensioner poverty.

Paul Maynard: In 2021/22, there were 200,000 fewer pensioners in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10. The Government remains committed to ensuring that older people can live with the dignity and respect they deserve, and the State Pension is the foundation of financial support for today’s older people and for retirement saving by younger people. From April 2024, subject to parliamentary approval, the basic and new State Pensions and Pension Credit Standard Minimum Guarantee will be up-rated by 8.5%, in line with earnings growth, benefiting over 12.2 million pensioners. This delivers on the Government’s ‘triple lock’ commitment to increase these rates in line with the highest of growth in prices, growth in earnings or 2.5%. Other State Pension and benefit rates, including the Additional State Pension, will be increased by 6.7%, in line with the increase in the Consumer Prices Index for the year to September 2023. There are currently around 1.4 million pensioners claiming some £5bn of Pension Credit, which tops up their retirement income. This provides invaluable financial support for the poorest pensioners and is a passport to a range of other benefits. We are taking action to raise awareness of Pension Credit, encouraging pensioners to check their eligibility and make a claim. The Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living which is why it is providing total support of over £94bn in 2022/23 and 2023/24 to help households and individuals with their rising bills. Over 8 million UK households on eligible means-tested benefits, including Pension Credit, will receive Cost of Living Payments totalling up to £900 in 2023/24. In addition, over 8 million households will receive a £300 pensioner Cost of Living Payment as a top up to their winter fuel payment this year, increasing payments to £500 or £600 where the household includes someone aged 80 or over. Pensioners in receipt of an eligible disability benefit will have received the £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment. In addition to these current measures, to reduce the risk of poverty for future pensioners, automatic enrolment into workplace pensions has transformed pension participation for millions of workers. To date, over 10.8 million people have been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension, with over 2.1 million employers complying with their duties. Furthermore, our 50 PLUS agenda aims to maximise the labour market opportunities for people to earn and save for longer.

Universal Credit

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of Universal Credit claimants who will have 53 charging days for rent in 2024.

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the (a) financial and (b) practical implications for Universal Credit claimants of 53 charging days for rent in 2024.

Mims Davies: Universal Credit always converts weekly amounts to monthly sums using 52 weeks. The issue of there being 53 rent charging days in a year is relevant only for Universal Credit (UC) claimants who have their rent charged on a weekly basis and have 53 charging periods in a calendar year. UC claimants in the Social Rented Sector are typically charged rent weekly every Monday and so in a typical year their 12 monthly UC payments will align with the 52 charging periods. Every six years, or five if including a leap year, they will have 53 charging periods. In 2024 there will be 53 of these periods with the 53rd rent payment occurring on the final day of the calendar year. 53 charging periods will not apply in all UC claims and some claimants will not have a 53 charging period year during the life of their benefit claim.We have considered alternative options for those with weekly tenancies, but each have their own limitations and disadvantages for claimants. The matter occurs because weekly charging periods can never be accurately aligned with monthly periods. Tenants of social housing providers are used to managing varying outgoings every month depending on whether four or five rent payments are due – not just during a year in which there are 53 charging periods.Discretionary Housing Payments can be paid to those entitled to Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs. Since 2011, the government has provided nearly £1.7 billion in Discretionary Housing Payments to local authorities.We do not have forecasts for this group for 2024. The most recent data from DWP’s statistical release platform Stat-Xplore is for August 2023 which shows that there were 1,664,104 Social Rented Sector households receiving housing support through UC, of which the department’s analysts estimate that approximately 1.4 million (85%) were charged weekly.

Department for Work and Pensions: Staff

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many vacancies there are within his Department; and what recent estimate he has made of the number of full-time equivalent staff that will be employed by his Department by the end of 2024.

Paul Maynard: DWP have ambitious recruitment plans over 2023/24 and are filling approximately 4,400 posts a quarter, through internal and external recruitment to manage attrition and also grow key priority areas to respond to changing demand and commitments. DWP has yet to sign off workforce plans for the period to end 2024, which forms part of the financial year 2024/25. DWP awaits further guidance from HMT on future Civil Service headcount levels following the chancellor’s announcement in October 2023, and will then be in a position to give an accurate estimate of FTEs employed in DWP by end 2024.

Local Housing Allowance

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of increasing the local housing allowance to the 50th percentile of local market rents.

Mims Davies: The Secretary of State has committed to review LHA rates annually and has just completed his review for 2024/25 rates. From April 2024 we are investing £1.2 billion increasing Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This significant investment will ensure 1.6 million private renters in receipt of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit will gain on average, nearly £800 per year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024/25.

State Retirement Pensions

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of the over 80 pension.

Paul Maynard: No such assessment has been made. In April 2023 the over 80, Category D, non-contributory State Pension, saw its biggest ever rise of 10.1%. The full weekly Category D State Pension is now £93.60 per week.  In addition, a range of other measures and benefits are available to pensioners aged 80 and over. These include Pension Credit which can top up a pensioner’s income to a minimum of £201.05 a week for single pensioners and £306.85 for couples and provide access to a range of other benefits such as help with rent and council tax. Moreover, households with a person aged 80 or over receive a Winter Fuel Payment of £300, which is more than the standard Winter Fuel Payment of £200 for pensioners below that age.

Members: Correspondence

Dame Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the Pension Tracing Service plans to the follow-up to the hon. Member for Wallasey’s original correspondence of 10 January 2023 on tracing a United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority pension.

Paul Maynard: Despite an extensive search, officials have been unable to trace your correspondence of 10 January 2023. If you would care to send a copy of that letter to the Department, I can ask my officials to look into the matters raised for you.

Cost of Living Payments: Civil Servants

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of making the one-off civil servant cost-of-living payment available to retired civil servant staff who were employed in the civil service in the year 31 March 2022 to 1 April 2023.

Paul Maynard: DWP must abide by the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance. This is the published by the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. The Addendum to the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance for 2023/24 guidance states; ‘for 2023/24, departments covered by the Pay Remit Guidance have flexibility to make a fixed non-consolidated payment of £1,500 per full-time employee for those in delegated grades, subject to eligibility’. The Addendum guidance stipulated that civil servants ‘need to have been in post both on 31 March 2023 and still in post on the date of payment.’ For DWP employees, the payment was made in July 2023, and our guidance stated: ‘you must have been employed within the Civil Service on 31st March 2023 and employed by DWP 1st July 2023.’ It is not possible for DWP to confer eligibility to employees who were not in post on these dates, as this would be outside of the parameters of the Remit Guidance.

Pension Credit: Eligibility

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to increase the proportion of eligible people claiming Pension Credit.

Paul Maynard: We continue to maximise opportunities to raise awareness of Pension Credit which provides vital financial support to households on a low income. Our Pension Credit Communications campaign, ongoing since April 2022, has included advertising on national TV, newspapers, broadcast radio, on social media and via internet search engines as well as on screens in Post Offices and GP surgeries. We have also used sponsored advertising on targeted websites that pensioners, their family, and friends are likely to visit. Our campaign messaging has highlighted that Pension Credit is a passport to a range of other help and benefits – including up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments. The latest available figures show that there were more households receiving Pension Credit in May 2023 than in May 2022 – at the beginning of the campaign.

Motability: Electric Vehicles

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 13 November 2023 to Question 90 on Motability, if he will make it his policy to increase the mobility element of relevant benefits to enable those choosing to use the Motability scheme to afford electric vehicles.

Tom Pursglove: The department is responsible for the disability benefits that provide a passport to the Motability scheme, which enables disabled people in receipt of a relevant benefit to lease cars, powered wheelchairs and scooters. The Motability scheme includes electric vehicles in its offer. Disability benefits are increased yearly in line with CPI. It was announced at Autumn Statement that benefits will rise by 6.7% in April 2024. Motability Foundation is an independent charitable organisation that is wholly responsible for the terms and the administration of the scheme together, with oversight of Motability Operations and this includes support for leasing electric vehicles.

Attorney General

Good Law Project: Legal Costs

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Attorney General, what was the total sum (a) paid to and (b) received from the Good Law Project by HM Government in respect of legal costs in each financial year since 2017-18.

Michael Tomlinson: There were 52 cases against His Majesty’s Government in which the Good Law Project were involved as a party which concluded in the period since the start of the 2017-18 financial year. HM Government won 14 and lost 2 of those cases, 15 cases were settled, and 31 cases withdrawn by the Good Law Project.In total, the Good Law Project has paid £539,766.19 in legal costs to HM Government, while HM Government has paid £63,738.71 in legal costs to the Good Law Project.In financial year 2017-2018, no payments were made or received.In financial year 2018-2019, £40,000.00 was paid to, and £4,753.00 was received from, the Good Law Project.In financial year 2019-2020, £0 was paid to, and £59,013.19 was received from, the Good Law Project.In financial year 2020-2021, £0 was paid to, and £10,000.00 was received from, the Good Law Project.In financial year 2021-2022, £0 was paid to, and £270,000.00 was received from, the Good Law Project.In financial year 2022-2023, £23,738.71 was paid to, and £196,000.00 was received from, the Good Law Project.In financial year 2023-2024 to date, no payments have been made or received.

Home Office

Passports: Northern Ireland

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passports were issued from HM Passport Office in Belfast in the last three years; and how many and what proportion of these passports were issued to people declaring that they held an Irish passport.

Robert Jenrick: Passport applications are distributed across offices throughout the UK. The data for the volume of passports issued following a successful application by office, and the data for the number of applications processed by office, is not held in a reportable format.The data for applications where the holding of a non-British passport has been declared is not broken down by the issuing country of that passport, and is therefore not held in a reportable format.

Deportation

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who had not been refused entry at ports were subject to (a) enforced, (b) facilitated and (c) voluntary deportations in each year between 1993 and 2005.

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who had previously sought asylum in the UK were subject to (a) enforced and (b) voluntary deportation each year between 1993 and 2010.

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of asylum claims resulted in (a) asylum being granted, (b) permission to stay for other reasons, (c) refusal, (d) withdrawal in each year since 1993; and how many and what proportion of those claims are still pending.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office publishes data on returns and asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.Annual data going back to 2004 for enforced and voluntary returns by return type and back to 2010 for enforced and voluntary asylum-related returns are published in tables Ret_01 and Ret_05 of the ‘Returns summary tables’. Unfortunately, data going back to 1993 is not available.Data going back to 2001 on initial decisions for asylum applications by case outcome and going back to 2010 on asylum applications awaiting a decision are published in tables Asy_D02 and Asy_D03 of the ‘Asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’.Earlier data on Returns can be found in ‘List of tables’ of the year ending June 2019 statistical release.Earlier data on Asylum applications and decisions from 1993 to 2010 can be found in table as_01 and as_02 in the old table formats, available at: Asylum data tables, volume 1 (opens new file).

British Nationality

Neil O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people (a) were granted and (b) held UK citizenship in each year since 1993.

Robert Jenrick: Since 2011, the Home Office has published data on the processing of applications for British citizenship on the Gov.uk website.The link to the latest Migration Transparency Data can be found here:www.gov.uk/government/publications/visas-and-citizenship-data-q2-2023Data relating to earlier applications can be found here:www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/immigration-system-statistics-data-tables#citizenshipThere are no records of the number of people who are automatically British from birth and no data is held to show the number of people who hold UK citizenship each year.

Fire Stations: Closures

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an estimate of the number of fire stations that have closed per region since 2010.

Chris Philp: For the latest available data, to year ending March 2021, there were 1,390 fire stations, compared with 1,439 in year ending March 2010, a reduction of 49 stations over the period for the whole of England. In the year ending March 2010, there were 101,159 primary fires in England, compared with 61,922 in year ending March 2021.Table 1: Number of Fire Stations in England, by yearYear ending MarchNumber of Fire StationsEngland-wide Annual Change20101,439 20111,435-420121,422-1320131,416-620141,407-920151,409+220161,400-920171,400020181,394-620191,395+120201,393-220211,390-3Change 2010 to 2021-49Data on fire stations is published in FIRE1403, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/634d2ed6e90e0731aa0fcc59/fire-statistics-data-tables-fire1403-201022.xlsx. This provides the number of fire stations by year for England, and for each fire and rescue service (FRS), designated as either metropolitan or non-metropolitan. We do not publish the data by region, but the numbers for each FRS can be aggregated to provide required regional level data.Data on the number of primary fires is published in FIRE0102, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65324b0e26b9b1000faf1c5e/fire-statistics-data-tables-fire0102-261023.xlsx.

Police: Biometrics

Sir Charles Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the police use the passport database for facial recognition searches.

Chris Philp: The sharing of passport data with law enforcement agencies for the purpose of preventing and detecting crime is longstanding, and is provided for within His Majesty’s Passport Office’s Privacy Information Notice:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmpo-privacy-information-notice#full-publication-update-history

Jews and Muslims: Safety

Mr Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure the safety of (a) Jewish and (b) Muslim communities in the UK in the context of the war in Gaza.

Chris Philp: In response to the conflict and reports of increased incidents of antisemitism in the UK, the Prime Minister has announced additional funding of £3 million for the Community Security Trust (CST) to provide additional security at Jewish schools, synagogues and other Jewish community sites, bringing total funding for CST, through the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant, to £18 million in 2023/24. The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement confirmed that protective security funding for the Jewish community will be maintained at £18 million in 2024/25.Earlier this year, we established the Jewish Community Crime, Policing and Security Taskforce. The Taskforce, chaired by the Home Secretary, allows the Jewish community, represented by CST, to raise concerns with the Home Office, law enforcement and partners, and work together to understand and address the concerns of the Jewish community on safety and security issues. We continue to work closely with CST on how best to respond to live incidents that affect the Jewish communities in the UK.The Prime Minister has made clear we stand with British Muslim communities. We will not tolerate anti-Muslim hatred in any form and seek to stamp it out wherever it occurs. I can now confirm that additional funding of £4.9 million will also be made available to provide additional protective security at mosques and Muslim faith schools in light of increased reports of anti-Muslim hate incidents. This brings the total funding to £29.4 million for both 2023/24 and 2024/25. We have also extended the deadline for the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme and invite UK mosques and Muslim faith community centres to register for protective security measures by the end of December.The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has also allocated over £6 million to Tell MAMA since their inception in 2012 for their vital work monitoring and supporting victims of anti-Muslim hatred.

Biometrics: Privacy

Sir Charles Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of live facial recognition technologies on the right to privacy.

Chris Philp: The use of technologies like facial recognition are an operational matter for the police.The Government supports police use of facial recognition, including live facial recognition (LFR), which has been helping them to catch criminals including murderers and rapists quickly and accurately. But it is important that the police use it appropriately.Its use is subject to data protection, human rights, and equalities laws, which means that it can only be used for a policing purpose, where necessary, proportionate and fair.The College of Policing has published an Authorised Professional Practice (APP) on police use of LFR. The APP includes details on when the police can use it, the categories of people they can look for, the requirement for immediate deletion of unmatched biometric data, and the need for a Data Protection Impact Assessment.Following a possible alert, it is always a police officer on the ground who will decide what action, if any, to take; all deployments are targeted, intelligence-led, time-bound, and geographically limited; and before a deployment, the police will inform the public where they intend to use the technology and where they can obtain more information on its use. If the LFR system does not make a match with the watchlist of wanted individuals, the person’s biometric data is deleted immediately and automatically.

Bicycles: Theft

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will have discussions with relevant stakeholders on the potential merits of funding technology to (a) prevent cycle thefts and (b) enable secure tracking systems on bicycles and e-bikes.

Chris Philp: The Government encourages the use of innovative new technology to prevent theft and trace stolen items.In 2020 the Government published Gear Change – a bold vision for cycling and walking. Theme 4 of Gear Change includes various initiatives to reduce cycle theft. The Department for Transport and Active Travel England are working with the police-led National Cycle Crime Group to support regional cycle crime enforcement partnerships and raise awareness of better ways to secure cycles.Cycle Crime Reduction Partnerships have been set up across the country to coordinate regional enforcement activity to disrupt organised cycle theft.The Home Office has established an expert Stolen Goods Working Group with the police and academia to tackle the markets for stolen goods. The group is working to identify where and how stolen goods are commonly sold; examining ways to ensure property is secure, identifiable and traceable through property marking, and exploring ways to increase enforcement and share best practice between forces.Crime survey of England & Wales for year ending June 2023 shows that bicycle theft since March 2010 has reduced by 54%.There are currently no plans for the Home Office to provide any further funding for technology to tackle cycle theft.

Asylum

Christine Jardine: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to reduce the backlog of asylum applications.

Robert Jenrick: Provisional data indicates that between the end of November 2022 and October 2023 the legacy backlog reduced by 64% and we remain on track to clear the legacy backlog by the end of the year as per the Prime Minister’s commitment last year.We will continue the steps we are already taking to speed up asylum processing whilst maintaining the integrity of the system. This includes better performance management, overtime, and shorer, focussed interviews.

Asylum: Palestinians

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make it his policy to fast-track asylum applications for Palestinians in the UK.

Robert Jenrick: All asylum claims admitted to the UK asylum system, including those from Palestiniansare given careful consideration.Asylum claims are prioritised in line with published policy, rather than in response to international incidents, including those who have waited the longest or those with acute vulnerabilities.

Antisocial Behaviour

Mark Menzies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Chris Philp: In March, the Government launched the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, backed by £160m of funding overseen by the ASB taskforce. This includes funding Police and Crime Commissioners to increase patrolling in ASB hotspot areas and to run immediate justice schemes.In July we launched Round 5 of the Safer Streets Fund funding PCCs to deliver ASB and crime prevention measures.

Antisocial Behaviour

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department's measures to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Chris Philp: In March, the Government launched the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, backed by £160m of funding overseen by the ASB taskforce. This includes funding Police and Crime Commissioners to increase patrolling in ASB hotspot areas and to run immediate justice schemes.In July we launched Round 5 of the Safer Streets Fund funding PCCs to deliver ASB and crime prevention measures.

Visas: Students

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to improve the application process for student visas.

Robert Jenrick: During 2023, straightforward applications were delivered within published Service Standards.My department introduced technology for a fully digital application process for EEA customers, and customers of any nationality applying in the UK using a UK residence permit.We are continually making improvements to processes, working closely with the education sector to support students to apply early with the correct documentation.

Police: Standards

Mrs Paulette Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of levels of neighbourhood policing.

Chris Philp: This Government is giving policing the resources it needs to police local communities and fight crime. At the end of March 2023, we successfully delivered our commitment to recruit 20,000 additional officers in England and Wales, which means we now have the highest number of officers on record.Decisions about how these officers are deployed are for Chief Constables, who are accountable to locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners and mayors with these functions.

Antisocial Behaviour

Siobhan Baillie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Chris Philp: In March, the Government launched the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, backed by £160m of funding overseen by the ASB taskforce. This includes funding Police and Crime Commissioners to increase patrolling in ASB hotspot areas and to run immediate justice schemes.In July we launched Round 5 of the Safer Streets Fund funding PCCs to deliver ASB and crime prevention measures.

Asylum

Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate his Department has made of when the asylum backlog will be reduced to 2010 levels.

Robert Jenrick: Provisional data indicates that between the end of November 2022 and October 2023 the legacy backlog reduced by 64% and we remain on track to clear the legacy backlog by the end of the year as per the Prime Minister’s commitment last year.We will continue the steps we are already taking to speed up asylum processing whilst maintaining the integrity of the system. This includes better performance management, overtime, and shorer, focussed interviews.

Retail Trade: Crimes of Violence

Martin Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle retail crime and violence against shop workers.

Chris Philp: Violent and abusive behaviour towards any worker, particularly those who provide a valuable service to the public, is never acceptable. We have taken significant steps to tackle retail crime, including publication of the police-led Retail Crime Action plan which details clear police response commitments and guidance for retailers.

Domestic Abuse

Mark Pawsey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle domestic violence.

Laura Farris: Domestic abuse is an abhorrent crime and tackling it remains a top priority for this Government.We remain committed to delivering our Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and complimentary Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan. We have doubled funding for the National Domestic Abuse Helpline and added violence against women and girls - including domestic abuse - to the revised Strategic Policing Requirement elevating it to a national threat for police forces to respond to accordingly.

Asylum

Bob Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress he has made on reducing the backlog of asylum cases.

Robert Jenrick: Provisional data indicates that between the end of November 2022 and October 2023 the legacy backlog reduced by 64% and we remain on track to clear the legacy backlog by the end of the year as per the Prime Minister’s commitment last year.We will continue the steps we are already taking to speed up asylum processing whilst maintaining the integrity of the system. This includes better performance management, overtime, and shorer, focussed interviews.

Fire and Rescue Services

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help ensure that fire and rescue services are able to respond to extreme weather events.

Rachel Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many wildfires there were in the UK between October (a) 2021 and 2022 and (b) 2022 and 2023.

Chris Philp: The Home Office collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) through the Fire and Rescue Service Incident Recording System (IRS).This data includes the location category of the fire and the source of ignition. However, the system does not currently record whether an incident is a wildfire.The IRS system is currently being replaced and wildfires will be included in the future. Outdoor fire data is published at Outdoor fires in England incident level dataset (expanded) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Speed Limits: Cameras

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact on privacy of the use of Sentio speed cameras.

Chris Philp: All speed cameras undergo the Home Office Type Approval requirements and testing regime before they can be used in court proceedings without the need for other corroborative evidence. The Sensio speed camera is currently undergoing Type Approval for use in detecting speed offences.Police forces are required to comply with the data principles contained within UK GDPR part 2 general processing and the DPA 2018 part 3 for law enforcement when processing personal data. The use of speed camera devices should be necessary and proportionate in line with these principles.

Police: Demonstrations

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse for policing (a) national and (b) regional marches in relation to the Israel-Hamas conflict since 7 October 2023.

Chris Philp: The Government is committed to supporting the police in the robust use of their existing powers to prevent the incitement of hatred, disorder and disruption.The management of protests, including the resourcing is an operational matter for the police.

British Nationality: Assessments

Wendy Chamberlain: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people applied for an exemption to the Life in the UK Test on the basis of a long-term (a) physical and (b) mental condition in each month since January 2020.

Wendy Chamberlain: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were refused an exemption to the Life in the UK Test on the basis of a long-term (a) physical and (b) mental condition in each month since January 2020.

Wendy Chamberlain: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time was to process an application for an exemption to the Life in the UK Test in each year since 2020.

Robert Jenrick: We are unable to provide this data as we do not record data relating to requests for exemption from the Life in the UK Test.

Visas: Donors

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visas were (a) granted and (b) denied for people visiting the UK for the purpose of donating stem cells in each year from 2010 to 2022.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office does not record the reasons for the visit visa in a reportable format and to obtain the information requested could not be done without disproportionate cost.

Immigration: Employment

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many immigration raids his Department carried out on employers in each employment sector in each year since 2012.

Robert Jenrick: To maintain the highest standards of accuracy, the Home Office refer to published data, as this has been subject to rigorous quality assurance under National Statistics protocols prior to publication.Information about the number of Enforcement Visits conducted by Immigration Enforcement in relation to employers in each employer sector is not available in our published data.Our published data on enforcement visits (including illegal working visits) is available at the following link: Statistics relating to the Illegal Migration Act - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Asylum: Rwanda

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his Statement on Illegal Immigration on 15 November 2023, Official Report, column 649, whether he plans to lay the treaty with Rwanda on asylum processing before Parliament for 21 sitting days before ratification.

Robert Jenrick: The treaties the Government wishes to ratify are subject to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRaG) 2010. As provided for under CRaG, Parliament has a statutory period of 21 days to scrutinise and potentially debate the treaty prior to ratification. We will set out further details in due course.

Members: Correspondence

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 14 November 2023 to Question 1202 on Members: Correspondence, if he will make an assessment of the status of the technical issue as of 22 November 2023.

Robert Jenrick: Having reviewed the system we are satisfied that this error is not part of a wider systemic issue. The majority of all requests for Biometric Residence Permits are successfully processed, however, the case in question was part of a very small number of failures, usually because of a data entry error rather than a system issue. We are taking steps (like postcode lookup and enhanced operational guidance) to further enhance data quality to drive down the small number even further.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

British Library: Cybercrime

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has taken steps to help secure the restoration of the British Library’s services following the recent cyber-attack against it; and what estimate her Department has made of the date by which those services will be restored.

Sir John Whittingdale: The British Library is undertaking a forensic investigation of this incident, with the support of the National Cyber Security Centre and cybersecurity specialists, and has reported it to the Information Commissioner’s Office. This investigation will help to provide a full picture of what happened, and the extent of disruption caused. This will take time, during which the British Library is liaising closely with the Department for Culture, Media & Sport and others to provide updates.The British Library has taken targeted protective measures to ensure the integrity of its systems, including the quarantining of hardware, the resetting of passwords for all staff, and the installation of additional monitoring and detection software across its estate.The British Library’s physical sites remain open to the public and are offering a range of services, including reading room access for personal study, some limited manual collection item ordering, exhibitions, learning events, business support, and onsite retail. Details of what the public can access are available via the British Library’s social media channels.It is too soon to give an exact timetable but the British Library anticipates restoring many digital services in the next few weeks, although some disruption may persist for longer.

Electronic Publishing

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department has taken to increase the effectiveness of the Electronic Legal Deposit system since the cyberattack on the British Library.

Sir John Whittingdale: The British Library has been keeping the other Legal Deposit Libraries of the UK and Ireland informed since the cyber attack against it. The Non-Print Legal Deposit network is designed for resilience in line with industry-wide digital preservation guidelines, and the British Library is working with partners on additional precautionary steps while the investigation is ongoing.

British Library: Cybercrime

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the group or individual responsible for the recent cyber-attack against the British Library has been identified.

Sir John Whittingdale: The attack has been claimed by a known cyber crime group, and we currently have no reason to doubt their claim.

British Library: Cybercrime

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the cyber-attack against the British Library at the end of October 2023 on the public’s access to learning and research materials.

Sir John Whittingdale: The British Library is undertaking a forensic investigation of this incident, with the support of the National Cyber Security Centre and cybersecurity specialists, and has reported it to the Information Commissioner’s Office. This investigation will help to provide a full picture of what happened, and the extent of disruption caused. This will take time, during which the British Library is liaising closely with the Department for Culture, Media & Sport and others to provide updates.The British Library’s physical sites remain open to the public and are offering a range of services, including reading room access for personal study, some limited manual collection item ordering, exhibitions, learning events, business support, and onsite retail. Details of what the public can access are available via the British Library’s social media channels.

Gambling: Internet

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate she has made of the number of online illegal gambling sites accessible from the UK.

Stuart Andrew: There are inherent difficulties in accurately estimating the scale of the unlicensed gambling market in this country. We are not aware of any robust estimates for precisely how many unlicensed sites are accessible from the UK, and this is further complicated by the high churn in black market operations.However, the Government is aware of a number of studies including from the industry which suggests that the black market accounts for less than 2.5% of bets. Data from the Gambling Commission also suggests that the scale of the black market has remained low and stable, with little variation in the number of complaints it has received about illegal gambling websites.

Sports Competitors: Hearing Impairment

James Wild: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing deaf athletes to access funding allocated to Olympic and Paralympic sport through UK Sport.

Stuart Andrew: UK Sport uses funding provided by the Government to support athletes with potential to achieve success in Olympic and Paralympic sports. As the Deaflympics falls outside of Olympic and Paralympic sport, UK Sport are therefore unable to fund athletes targeting this event.This is in line with the Government’s approach to other Paralympic sports where competition is not offered in an athlete's particular classification or discipline.Sport England has committed £1.2 million between 2022 and 2027 to UK Deaf Sport to boost deaf sport at the grassroots level and build wider participation. They have also agreed to explore a series of small-scale talent pilots for d/Deaf athletes. These pilots will see Sport England, National Governing Bodies, and UK Deaf Sport working together to explore these issues and suggest potential solutions.

Gambling: Advertising

Ronnie Cowan: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the impact of the whistle-to-whistle ban on gambling advertising in football on the number of gambling messages displayed throughout televised football matches.

Ronnie Cowan: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of implementing a ban on gambling advertising on all parts of football kits.

Stuart Andrew: The Government welcomed the voluntary whistle-to-whistle ban on TV betting ads during live sports programmes, agreed by industry. According to figures from the Betting and Gaming Council, the ban reduced gambling advertisement views by children (age 4-17) by 70% over the full duration of live sporting programmes, with a 96% reduction in gambling TV advertising specifically during the restricted period.As part of the Gambling review, consideration was given to a range of restrictions on gambling advertising. As set out in the white paper we have struck a balanced and evidence-led approach which tackles aggressive advertising and that which is most likely to appeal to children, while still allowing sports bodies to benefit commercially from deals with responsible gambling firms.

Swimming: Children

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the availability of swimming (a) pools and (b) lessons for children.

Stuart Andrew: Responsibility for public access to and maintenance of swimming pools lies at local authority level.In recognition of the benefits of physical activity, including swimming, and the challenges facing the sector, we are providing over £60 million of support for swimming pools. This will help ease cost pressures facing public swimming pool providers and help make facilities sustainable in the long-term through investment in energy efficiency measures. The funding is being delivered in partnership with Sport England and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, following extensive consultation with local authorities and the sector.Swimming and water safety is a vital life skill, which is why it is a mandatory part of the primary PE National Curriculum. The Department for Education also administers schemes to ensure the provision of lessons and sports facilities for children, such as through the PE and Sport Premium and the Opening School Facilities (OSF) programme.

Charities: Energy

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the impact of energy costs on the charity sector.

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had recent discussions with representatives of charities on (a) capacity and (b) trends in the level of demand for their services.

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the level of financial resilience in the charity sector.

Stuart Andrew: DCMS Ministers and senior officials meet regularly with civil society representatives to discuss a wide range of issues including challenges faced by the sector.We also recognise that charities are seeing higher levels of demand for their services. That is why in the Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced a package of over £100 million for charities and community organisations in England. This funding is split into two strands and is supporting organisations in need right now. The £76 million Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund has closed for applications, and is awarding funding to frontline organisations supporting vulnerable individuals and households. The second strand, the £25 million VCSE Energy Efficiency Scheme, will support longer-term sustainability, and will launch later this year for applications.

Arts and Sports: Folkestone and Hythe

Damian Collins: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding has been provided by (a) Sport England and (b) the Arts Council for projects in the Folkestone and Hythe district in each year since 2010; and which projects in the district have received such funding.

Stuart Andrew: The table below provides a summary of the investments made by Sport England and Arts Council England (“ACE”) in the Folkestone and Hythe Constituency since 2010. YEARSPORT ENGLANDACE2010£19,980£642,6782011£174,060£98,6212012£185,448£111,0712013£70,513£912,5812014£37,949£229,4402015£154,039£880,0232016£36,187£1,365,7622017£108,966£1,934,9652018£140,065£851,8372019£382,364£459,2542020£239,443£1,252,0132021£53,428£1,616,2862022£106,155£987,9562023£48,601£819,229TOTAL 2010-23:£1,757,198£12,161,716 For a breakdown of the projects funded across this period, Sport England publishes an updated register of grant awards on a quarterly basis, with awards dating back to 2009 listed in full.Due to a change in Arts Council England's (ACE) grant management system in 2016, data from before that date is not as high quality and not reliably comparable with more recent data. Noting this caveat we have provided the figures nonetheless for completeness.Grants awarded from ACE's main funding streams within the last 5 financial years (2023/2024 inclusive) are published online and provide details of all organisations that receive funding.They are available in the following locations:National Lottery Project GrantsDeveloping Your Creative PracticeInvestment Programme (2018-2022 NPO)Investment Programme (2023-2026 NPO)Cultural Recovery FundEmergency Response Fund

Students: Voluntary Work

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Education on the potential impact of the cost of living on university students' ability to participate in volunteering.

Stuart Andrew: The Government recognises the valuable contribution that student volunteers make to their communities and the benefits they gain from these experiences.My department funds and works closely with the Vision for Volunteering, which is a voluntary sector initiative to lead the ongoing support and development of all volunteering in England.My department has also funded several other initiatives to support volunteering participation including the Volunteering Futures Fund, Know Your Neighbourhood and the Big Help Out, which was a day of community volunteering to mark the Coronation of His Majesty the King and Her Majesty The Queen, held on 8 May 2023. My department has allocated funding for a repeat of the Big Help Out campaign, which will take place from 7-9 June 2024.The Government continues to recognise and celebrate the extraordinary contributions of volunteers across the country. Since 2014, over 2,100 people have been named Points of Light by the Prime Minister, highlighting a wide array of innovative and inspirational volunteering across the UK.The department has not specifically discussed student volunteering with the Secretary of State for Education.

Television Licences: Fees and Charges

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make it her policy to freeze the television licence fee in 2024.

Sir John Whittingdale: We agreed a fair settlement with the BBC that will see the licence fee remain at £159 until 2024 to protect licence fee payers from inflationary pressures, and then rise in line with inflation until the end of 2027 when the current Charter is due for renewal. Exactly how a future increase would be calculated is yet to be confirmed.

Television Licences: Fees and Charges

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with the Television Licensing Authority on the potential merits of expanding payment exemptions for the television licence fee.

Sir John Whittingdale: While concessions are set in legislation, it is the BBC, not Government, that administers these schemes.We are not considering making changes to the current concessions regime at this time.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Artificial Intelligence: Regulation

Sir Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, when she plans to establish a formal regulatory framework for Artificial Intelligence; and whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals on this issue.

Saqib Bhatti: In March, we published the AI Regulation White Paper, which set out a regulatory framework to drive responsible, safe AI innovation. The White Paper set out five core principles to govern AI, and committed to establishing mechanisms to monitor AI risk, and coordinate, evaluate and adapt the regulatory framework as the technology evolves.Since publishing the White Paper, we have taken rapid steps to implement our approach. We have established a central AI risk function in DSIT which will ensure that we can identify, measure and monitor existing and emerging AI risks. We are also engaging closely with regulators across the UK and their sponsoring government departments to understand their readiness to regulate AI effectively, across technical, regulatory, and market-specific expertise. Many regulators have already taken proactive steps to account for the impact of AI within their sectors – for example, the CMA has published its initial review of AI Foundation Models.In the White Paper, we said that we do not intend to introduce new legislation at this stage. However, this is a fast-moving technology, and we will take action to mitigate risks and support safe and responsible AI innovation as required. We committed to an agile regulatory framework, and are monitoring current and emerging risks as AI evolves. As we have done throughout, we will develop our approach through engagement with industry and civil society, maintaining a pro-innovation approach that means AI improves the lives of the British people.The consultation on the White Paper closed in June. During the consultation period, we heard from over 400 individuals and organisations across regulators, industry, academia, and civil society. We committed to an iterative approach that will evolve as new risks or regulatory gaps emerge. We will be setting out our next steps in our response to the White Paper consultation shortly.

Pornography: Internet

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to give people who feature in pornographic material the right to withdraw their consent to that material being (a) published and (b) distributed.

Saqib Bhatti: The Online Safety Act, which received Royal Assent on 26 October, will bring in a new offence for intimate image abuse, which will criminalise the sharing of intimate images or films without consent. Additionally, the government has committed to undertaking a review of pornography legislation, regulation and enforcement, which will assess whether the regulation of online pornography in the UK is fit for purpose in tackling exploitation and abuse.

Research, Development and Innovation Organisational Landscape Review

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Government response to the independent report by Sir Paul Nurse entitled Research, development and innovation (RDI) organisational landscape: an independent review, published on 1 October 2021, what the (a) milestones, (b) deliverables and (c) timelines are for the review of the future of QR research funding.

Andrew Griffith: The Review of Research England’s (RE) approach to Strategic Institutional Research Funding (SIRF) which includes quality-related research (QR), will assess the effectiveness of unhypothecated research funding for Higher Education Providers. It will assess the principles and assumptions underlying current approaches and evaluate implementation. The review, set for 2024, will update the evidence on SIRF's impact, enhance transparency, and engage the Higher Education sector. RE will commission an independent review on the 'Impact of SIRF' in December 2023 and stakeholder workshops in Summer 2024. Any changes to funding approaches will not be implemented before Academic Year 2026-2027.

Research: Finance

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to paragraph 4.49 of the Autumn Statement 2023, CP 977, published on 22 November, whether the £750 million of R&D spend is in addition to existing R&D funding.

Andrew Griffith: As a result of the UK’s bespoke deal on association to Horizon Europe and Copernicus, the government has been able to announce substantive investment in wider research and development (R&D) priorities. The £750 million package is fully funded from the government’s record 2021 Spending Review funding settlement for R&D. This includes £250 million for Discovery Fellowships, £145 million for new business innovation support and funding to support a new National Academy of mathematical sciences. These are transformative new programmes that maximise opportunities for UK researchers, businesses and innovators. We will also continue to deliver a multi-billion-pound package of support through the existing Horizon Europe Guarantee.

Dementia: Research

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to paragraph 4.83 of the Autumn Statement 2023, CP 977, whether the £20 million of funding announced doubles the existing funding for dementia research; and from which Department's budget the funding comes.

Andrew Griffith: The £20 million of funding comes from the £121 million in funding announced as a first response to Lord O’Shaughnessy’s recommendations on improving the UK’s commercial clinical trial offer. This £20m is part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology's budget. This funding forms part of our manifesto commitment to double dementia research funding by 2024/25.

Department for Transport

Driving Tests: Waiting Lists

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2023 to Question 2364 on Driving Tests: Waiting Lists, if he will make an estimate of the average waiting time in weeks for a practical driving test at each DVSA centre in (a) December 2019 and (b) each month between June 2021 and November 2023.

Guy Opperman: The average waiting time in weeks for a practical driving test at each test centre in December 2019, pre-Covid, and in each month between June 2021 and November 2023 is in the attached table.  Practical Driving Test Waiting Times - UIN 2931 (xlsx, 75.8KB)

Roads: Demonstrations

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps with the Secretary of State for the Home Department to help tackle car convoys making political protests that block roads.

Huw Merriman: Ministers in the Department have regular meetings with colleagues in various departments about what the Government can do to make sure the travelling public are inconvenienced as little as possible, while ensuring the right to protest is maintained. Operational decisions in relation to any specific event are a matter for the Police working in conjunction with the relevant highway authorities.

Altnabreac Station

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has received representations on services at Altnabreac railway station from Network Rail.

Huw Merriman: Altnabreac railway station is managed by ScotRail. As ScotRail is a devolved operator, the Department would expect any Network Rail representations regarding services here to be made to the Scottish Government’s transport agency, Transport Scotland.

Railways: Antisocial Behaviour and Sexual Offences

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he has taken to work with rail service providers to help tackle (a) antisocial behaviour and (b) sexual assault on rail services in (i) England and (ii) Romford constituency.

Huw Merriman: Every rail operator that manages stations has an obligation to obtain and maintain Secure Stations Accreditation, assessed by the British Transport Police (BTP), for a number of their stations. The scheme requires operators to demonstrate that a station is designed and operated in a safe and secure way, considering issues such as lighting, CCTV and signage. Operators are also required to obtain and maintain accreditation to the Safeguarding on Rail Scheme, again assessed independently by the BTP. The scheme requires operators to demonstrate how they are actively supporting vulnerable people on their network. The Department for Transport is funding a pilot scheme in Essex where Thurrock Council, working with other local authorities and the BTP, will be using Transport Safety Officers to help tackle anti-social behaviour on and around the rail network. The Department also supports the Rail Delivery Group ‘Zero Tolerance’ campaign against sexual harassment on the railway. The campaign informs people of the action they can take to report sexual harassment if they witness it and thereby help to combat it. A dedicated CrimeStoppers line is in operation for all those who wish to report anonymously. The BTP will investigate every report of sexual harassment on the railway; incidents can be reported to BTP via text on 61016, via the Railway Guardian App, online, or in an emergency by dialling 999.

M1: Accidents

Alistair Strathern: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of accidents at the M1 junction 13 interchange in each of the last three years.

Guy Opperman: The number of personal injury collisions reported by police is collected via the STATS19 system,  This records the road number and location of collisions but does not directly to assign them to the confines of a specific junctions.

Undocumented Migrants: English Channel

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Marine Accident Investigation Branch report Accident Investigation Report 7/2023, published on 9 November 2023, if he will establish a statutory inquiry into the deaths in the Channel on 24 November 2021.

Guy Opperman: I refer the Hon Lady to the Secretary of State’s written statement on the 9th November (HCWS27).

Motor Vehicles: Delivery Services

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the number and proportion of takeaway delivery drivers that do not have adequate car insurance.

Guy Opperman: The Government does not hold this information.

Network Rail: Innovation and Research

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the amount that was spent by Network Rail on (a) research and development and (b) rail innovation in each year since 2019.

Huw Merriman: Network Rail has a dedicated research and development portfolio, to improve infrastructure efficiency and performance. In Control Period 6 (2018/19 to 2023/24), this was allocated £245m in funding. Network Rail was also allocated a Performance Innovation Fund of £40m to support the testing and implementation of industry proposals to improve train punctuality over this Control Period.

Rolling Stock: Contracts

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what contracts his Department agreed with (a) Angel Trains, (b) Porterbrook and (c) Eversholt Rail for the leasing of rolling stock as part of the National Rail Contracts agreed with (i) Avanti West Coast and (ii) Cross Country announced on 19 September 2023.

Huw Merriman: The Department provided consent to Avanti West Coast to enter into leasing arrangements with Angel Trains Limited for the Class 390 units, and to Cross Country for the leasing of Class 170 from Porterbrook.

Rolling Stock: Procurement

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department provided for the Class 769 train development programme in each year since 2018.

Huw Merriman: No Government funding was provided. Porterbrook funded development of the Class 769 units, currently in use on Northern and previously in use on Great Western. Both operators entered into leasing arrangements with Porterbrook for these units.

Network Rail: Debts

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the level of debt held by Network Rail as of 20 November 2023.

Huw Merriman: Network Rail discloses its net debt position annually as part of the overall company results and detailed financial reporting in its annual report and accounts. As reported in the Network Rail annual report and accounts for the financial year 22/23, Network Rail’s net debt was £59,058m.

Railways

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the benefit-cost ratios were for each (a) new station built and (b) reopened line in each of the last 10 years.

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the projected passenger number were in the business case for each (a) new station and (b) reopened rail line in the last 10 years; and what the actual passenger numbers were in each case 12 months after they opened.

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the actual benefit-cost ratio for each (a) new station built and (b) reopened line in each of the last 10 years.

Huw Merriman: Benefit Cost Ratios (BCRs) within the economic case are only one element of decision-making on schemes and should be considered alongside the other cases in the five case business model used in Government (strategic, economic, financial, commercial and management cases). Therefore we do not routinely make BCRs available.Details of Rail infrastructure and assets lists new stations opened in the financial year can be found here https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/infrastructure-and-emissions/rail-infrastructure-and-assets/ Not all of these were promoted by the Department. Estimates of station usage contains annual estimates of the number of entries/exits and interchanges at each station in Great Britain https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/estimates-of-station-usageIn practice it can take a number of years for long term demand patterns to emerge for new stations. The Department (and bodies who promote their own schemes) have a long standing and established appraisal framework to help scheme promoters forecast passenger demand of new stations and lines. We are continuing to monitor our framework and use evaluation to understand the impacts of schemes.

M62: Repairs and Maintenance

Sir Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the roadworks on the M62 at the Ouse bridge, what estimate his Department has made of when (a) those roadworks will be completed, (b) the temporary speed limits will be removed and (c) all lanes will be open to traffic; and what steps his Department is taking to expedite the completion of those works.

Guy Opperman: The initial scope of the project included the replacement of two half joints on the eastbound carriageway however, following further inspections, National Highways determined that it was necessary to replace all eight joints. Whilst this means works will be ongoing longer than anticipated, it will minimise future disruption to road users and mitigate the risk of any future emergency failures that could lead to the full closure of the bridge.The programme of works on the M62 Ouse bridge is scheduled to complete by the end of August 2024, at which point the temporary speed limits and lane closures will be removed.

Railways: Repairs and Maintenance

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department spent on rail enhancements in each year since 2019.

Huw Merriman: Rail enhancements are delivered through the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline, which has spent the following in each year in CP6 (including contributions to 3rd party schemes), from 2019 (figures shown in £m, nominal):2019/20: £1,475m2020/21: £1,477m2021/22: £1,685m2022/23: £1,840m

High Speed 2 Line

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the total cost for the Old Oak Common to Euston branch of HS2 is; and what proportion of that cost will be met by private finance.

Huw Merriman: The scope and cost estimates for this section of the route are subject to review following the Network North announcement. An updated cost estimate will be reported to Parliament in due course, noting we are seeking to strip back the project and deliver a station that works, but does not include any features we do not need. In relation to private finance, work has commenced on developing the design of the model that will be used, as well as consideration of how and where the alternative funding generated by this will be spent. This will include consideration of a range of development models and financing mechanisms, before a final proposal is determined. Updates will be reported to Parliament in due course as this work progresses.

Railways: Standards

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to collate data on the number and proportion of train journeys that did not stop at a scheduled station due to late running in each train company in each year.

Huw Merriman: The Department has no plans to collate this data. The Office of Rail and Road, as independent regulator to the rail industry, records and publishes a range of information relating to the punctuality and reliability of rail services, including this dataset relating to cancellations: Table 3124 - Trains planned and cancellations by operator and cause (periodic) | ORR Data Portal.

Unmanned Air Vehicles: Pilot Schemes

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which (a) businesses and (b) projects have received matched funding from the emerging drone technology pilot scheme since 1 January 2020; and how much each received.

Anthony Browne: Government supports drone technology pilots through programmes such as the Future Flight Challenge and Drone Pathfinder Programme. Both programmes aim to demonstrate, educate, realise, and accelerate the benefit of drones across a wide range of sectors. The Department for Transport supported the Drone Pathfinder Accelerator programme to award up to £30,000 grants to six small and mediums sized enterprise projects in 2021 to deliver early-stage research and development studies to examine the integration of drones into UK airspace – see https://cp.catapult.org.uk/news/winners-announced-for-the-drones-transport-research-and-innovation-grants-programme/  In 2022 UK Research and Innovation announced £73 million for 17 winning projects for Phase 3 of the Future Flight Challenge Fund to develop and show integrated aviation systems and new vehicle technologies that included drone trials – see https://cp.catapult.org.uk/news/winners-announced-for-the-drones-transport-research-and-innovation-grants-programme/

Prime Minister

Prime Minister: Correspondence

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Prime Minister, if he will take steps to confirm receipt of written correspondence from an East Londonderry constituent of 16 June 2023 on water fluoridation policy; and when he plans to respond to that correspondence.

Rishi Sunak: Searches by my Office have not identified such correspondence. If the hon. Member would like to provide a copy, my Office will arrange for a reply to be sent.

Ministry of Justice

Probation Service: Staff

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of probation officers who left service in the past year had been in post for less than (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four, (e) five, (f) six, (g) seven and (h) eight years.

Edward Argar: The quarterly HMPPS workforce statistics publication covers staffing information, including number of leavers by length of service and grade. The latest publication covers data for up to the period 30 September 2023. Data for the number and proportion of Probation Officers who left the department in the 12 months to 30 September 2023, by length of service, can be seen in Table 1 below. Table 1: Probation Officer leavers by length of service, for those who left the department in the 12 months to 30 September 2023 (headcount) Completed years of service and percentage of total Less than 1 yearLess than 2 yearsLess than 3 yearsLess than 4 yearsLess than 5 yearsLess than 6 yearsLess than 7 yearsLess than 8 yearsTotalHeadcount31569103147167182188372Percentage of total1%4%19%28%40%45%49%51%100% Notes:1. Length of service in HMPPS is calculated from the most recent hire date. Where staff have transferred in from another Government Department or have transferred in through HMPPS taking over a function, length of service is calculated from entry to HMPPS.2. As with all HR databases, extracts are taken at a fixed point in time, to ensure consistency of reporting. However, the database itself is dynamic and where updates to the database are made late, subsequent to the taking of the extract, these updates will not be reflected in figures produced by the extract. For this reason, HR data is unlikely to be precisely accurate.3. The length of service bands have been grouped so that the data presented is cumulative in nature (so those with less than 1 year of service will be counted in all columns).

Community Orders

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Oral Statement of 16 October 2023 on Prison Capacity, Official Report, column 60, if he will make an assessment of the capacity of the probation service to manage an increased number of community orders in the next two years.

Edward Argar: It is right to suggest that the measures announced may have an impact on the Probation Service, which is why we are committed to ensuring that Probation can meet any additional demand.We have increased funding for the Probation Service by an additional £155m a year to recruit staff, to bring down caseloads and deliver better supervision of offenders in the community.We continue to focus on staffing levels through employment of experienced staff, recruitment of trainee Probation Officers and improving retention. We have exceeded recruitment targets and since 2020, 4,000 new trainees have joined which will help bring down caseloads and help meet additional demand.

Offences against Children: Reoffenders

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the proven re-offending was rate in each year since 2015 for people convicted of cruelty to children or young persons.

Edward Argar: This Government is committed to tackling the causes of reoffending to keep our communities safe. Between 2010/11 and 2020/21, the overall proven reoffending rate has decreased from 31.6% to 24.4%. Proven reoffending data, by index offence of “cruelty to or neglect of children” (annual average, England and Wales) [2015/16 to 2020/21] Apr 2015 - Mar 2016Apr 2016 - Mar 2017Apr 2017 - Mar 2018Apr 2018 - Mar 2019Apr 2019 - Mar 2020Apr 2020 - Mar 2021Proportion of offenders who reoffend (%)7.39.27.56.36.35.6

Young Offender Institutions: Ethnic Groups

Janet Daby: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many ethnic minority staff were recruited to positions in the youth secure estate in each reporting year since 2010.

Edward Argar: The headcount of staff who declared that they were from an ethnic minority background and who joined the Youth Custody Estate is given in the table below. Table 1 - Headcount of new joiners in Youth Custody Service prisons, by ethnicity, as at 31 March since 2010, and latest position as at 30 September 2023 12 months to:Ethnic MinorityWhiteUnknownTotal31/03/2010735145631/03/20117722710631/03/201253494831/03/2013~~556831/03/20140581331/03/201512766315131/03/20161510211122831/03/201711595712731/03/2018~~30531031/03/2019239237549031/03/20209276710331/03/202193012116031/03/2022309616429031/03/20233910319934130/09/202366193164423 Notes1. The Youth Custody Service (YCS), created in April 2017 to oversee day-to-day management of the under 18s young people’s estate. Youth Custody Estate includes the following prisons: Cookham Wood, Feltham, Werrington, Wetherby and Medway Secure Training Centre (which closed in March 2020)2. Ethnicity is a self-declared field and is optional to complete.3. Unknown includes those who hadn’t declared their ethnicity as well as those who responded ‘Prefer Not To Say’.4. Joiners are new recruits to HMPPS and figures do not include internal movements.

Community Orders

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many community sentences were issued in each month in 2023; and what estimate he has made of the potential impact of the proposed presumption against short sentences on the number of community sentences issued in each month.

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of planned changes to the presumption against short sentences announced on 16 October 2023 on the workload of the probation service.

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the presumption against short sentences on the prison population in the next (a) 12 months, (b) 24 months and (c) five years.

Gareth Bacon: We recognise that the presumption to suspend custodial sentences of 12 months or less has implications for the Probation Service, which is why we are committed to ensuring that Probation can meet any additional demand.We have increased funding for the Probation Service by an additional £155m a year to recruit staff, to bring down caseloads and deliver better supervision of offenders in the community.The Ministry of Justice publishes information on sentence outcomes by year and quarter in the Criminal Justice System Statistics publication. Sentence outcomes for January to June 2023 will be available in January 2024. The statistics for July to December will be available in subsequent publications. Upon publication, a breakdown by month can be requested.Our Impact Assessment, published on 14 November 2023, provides analysis on the potential impact of the presumption to suspend custodial sentences of 12 months and less, on community-based sentencing, the probation service and the prison population. This can be found on the following link: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/58-04/0011/SentencingBillIAShortSentences.pdf.

Prisoners' Transfers

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Oral Statement of 16 October 2023 on Prison Capacity, Official Report, column 61, which countries his Department has had discussions with on prisoner transfer deals.

Edward Argar: The removal of Foreign National Offenders is a Government priority. The Ministry of Justice continues to work closely with the Home Office to maximise the number of deportations.The UK, alongside 71 other countries, has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons. The full list of countries who have ratified can be found on the Council of Europe website: Full list - Treaty Office (coe.int)To develop bilateral Prisoner Transfer Agreements, we engage with key countries in the European Union and the rest of the world.We signed a Prisoner Transfer Agreement with the Philippines in October 2023, and made a new arrangement with Albania in May 2023 to increase the number of transfers under the agreement signed in May 2022.

Bedford Prison

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his Department's timescales are for the completion of the local security strategy for HMP Bedford.

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when officials in his Department became aware that the local security strategy for HMP Bedford had been deleted.

Edward Argar: The Local Security Strategy (LSS) for HMP Bedford is in the process of being reviewed and updated. Officials have been aware of this from the outset. A partially updated version was available for viewing during the recent inspection by HM Inspectorate of Prisons. The final updated version will be made available to staff in February 2024.We will respond to any comments from HM Inspectorate about the LSS when we receive the inspection report.

Young Offender Institutions: Violence

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many violent attacks by inmates on inmates were recorded in Young Offender Institutions in each of the last 10 years.

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department collects data on sexual assaults by staff on inmates in Young Offender Institutions.

Edward Argar: Data on assaults by children and young people in the secure estate, by sector, are published quarterly on GOV.UK. The latest publication with data from April 2014 is available at tables 1.2.1 and 1.2.2: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/safety-in-the-children-and-young-people-secure-estate-update-to-june-2023.Data prior to April 2014 are available at table 8.14: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/youth-justice-statistics.The way assaults are counted changed in April 2018 for Young Offender Institutions. Information before and after this date should not be compared.Safeguarding data for internal management information purposes has been collected centrally since November 2019. The categories to be reported include sexual abuse.

Prison Officers: Sexual Offences

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department collects data on the number of prison staff dismissed for entering into (a) romantic and (b) sexual relationships with prisoners.

Edward Argar: Data is collected on all conduct and discipline cases for MoJ employees, including those working in Prisons, and is captured once a dismissal has been submitted. Prison staff who have been dismissed for entering a sexual relationship fall under the sub-category ‘Sexual Relationship with Prisoner or Ex-Prisoner'.'Romantic relationship’ is not a term used in the standard categorisation, therefore we do not have data that captures this. This would fall under the charge of ‘Inappropriate Relationship with a Prisoner/Ex-Prisoner’.

Prison Officers: Sexual Offences

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) prison wardens, (b) probation officers and (c) prison governors were dismissed for (i) sexual harassment, (ii) sexual assault and (iii) rape in the last five years.

Edward Argar: The number of staff who are subject to Conduct and Discipline are generally low as a proportion of all staff. The number of band 3-5 prison officers and probation officers who were subject to a Conduct and Discipline (C&D) charge of 'sexual harassment/assault' and were recommended for dismissal from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2023 are given in Table 1 below. There were no Band 10/11 prison governors who were recommended for dismissal for the charge of 'sexual harassment/assault' in the last five years. 'Rape' is not a central charge listed under conduct & discipline. This would be classed under criminal conviction and an investigation would be carried out by the appropriate authorities accordingly. There is no place for any form of unacceptable behaviour in HMPPS. Such behaviour is contrary to its core values and will not be tolerated. All allegations of unacceptable behaviour are taken seriously, investigated and, where appropriate, disciplinary action will be taken. HMPPS launched its Tackling Unacceptable Behaviours Unit (TUBU) in 2020, and this has been followed by an increase in reported cases. The aim of TUBU is to help improve the working environment by providing additional support, insight and expertise to staff raising concerns. The TUBU provides additional support to managers investigating these concerns and ensures that investigations are carried out fairly and consistently and any unacceptable behaviour is challenged and dealt with appropriately. Table 1 - Headcount of band 3-5 prison officers1 and probation officers who were subject to a Conduct and Discpline2 charge of 'sexual harassment/assault'4 and were recommended for dismissal, from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2023 (p) by year5 and selected grades6  HeadcountGrade2018/192019/202020/212021/222022/23TotalBand 3-5 prison officers4310102148Probation officers0000~~ Notes to table1. Band 3-5 Officers includes Band 3-4 / Prison Officers (incl specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officers, and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.2. Conduct and Discipline cases are defined as where a penalty has been imposed on a member of HMPPS staff for a reason of conduct.3. A dismissal case is defined as where at least one of the charges relating to an individual is recommended for dismissal. Information on the outcomes of any appeal is not included. Also not included are any staff who resign prior to the Conduct and Discipline case.4. The Conduct and Discipline data does not disaggregate further than this so cannot split out harassment and assault.5. Year relates to 12 months to 31 March.6. If an individual had multiple charges they will be counted once in each year. ~ Denotes suppressed values of 2 or fewer or other values which would allow values of 2 or fewer to be derived by subtraction. Low numbers are suppressed to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 2018. (p) Provisional data. There may be minor changes to figures from December 2017 onwards in future due to additional data being recorded on the systems subsequent to extraction.

Homicide: Reoffenders

Sarah Owen: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders have been convicted of a serious further offence of murder, by type of index sentence in each year between 2010 and 2015.

Edward Argar: The table below sets out the total number of convictions, where an offender subject to probation supervision was charged with a serious further offence (SFO), which resulted subsequently in a conviction for murder, for all cases notified to what is now HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2015.Index Sentence201020112012201320142015Community Supervision334532272323Determinate Prison Sentence162619232317Life Licence120222IPP000101Total5073515348431. Time period for conviction data relates to the date of SFO notification to HMPPS not the date of conviction.2. Index sentence refers to the sentencing disposal imposed by the court which led to probation services supervision of the offender.3. The data only includes convictions for serious further offences of murder that have been notified to the national SFO Team, HMPPS.4. Conviction data also includes cases where the offender committed suicide or died prior to the trial, where the judicial process concluded that they were responsible.5. The data for January 2010 to December 2015 has been updated and may differ to any original publication due to data cleansing, re-categorising and re-grouping.6. Data Sources and Quality. We have drawn these figures from administrative IT systems which, as with some large-scale recording systems, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. Serious further offences are incredibly rare, with fewer than 0.5% of offenders supervised by the Probation Service going on to commit serious further offences but each one is investigated fully so we can take action where necessary. We have also injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year into the Probation Service to deliver tougher supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safer.

Homicide

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders by the type of index sentence, were convicted of a serious further offence of murder in each year between 2010 and 2015.

Edward Argar: The table below sets out the total number of convictions, where an offender subject to probation supervision was charged with a serious further offence (SFO), which resulted subsequently in a conviction for murder, for all cases notified to what is now HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2015. Index Sentence201020112012201320142015Community Supervision334532272323Determinate Prison Sentence162619232317Life Licence120222IPP000101Total5073515348431. Time period for conviction data relates to the date of SFO notification to HMPPS not the date of conviction.2. Index sentence refers to the sentencing disposal imposed by the court which led to probation services supervision of the offender.3. The data only includes convictions for serious further offences of murder that have been notified to the national SFO Team, HMPPS.4. Conviction data also includes cases where the offender committed suicide or died prior to the trial, where the judicial process concluded that they were responsible.5. The data for January 2010 to December 2015 has been updated and may differ to any original publication due to data cleansing, re-categorising and re-grouping.6. Data Sources and Quality. We have drawn these figures from administrative IT systems which, as with some large-scale recording systems, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. Serious further offences are incredibly rare, with fewer than 0.5% of offenders supervised by the Probation Service going on to commit serious further offences but each one is investigated fully so we can take action where necessary. We have also injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year into the Probation Service to deliver tougher supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safer.

Probation

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people supervised by the probation service were on post sentence supervision licences in each of the last 12 months.

Edward Argar: Offenders under post-sentence supervision (PSS) by the Probation Service, at end of period, July 2022 to June 2023, England and Wales (1) (2) Caseload dateAll offenders under PSS  31 July 202213,84231 August 202213,84530 September 202213,78931 October 202213,85130 November 202213,84231 December 202213,78531 January 202313,76028 February 202313,67931 March 202313,59230 April 202313,61231 May 202313,64830 June 202313,699   (1) Under the Offender Rehabilitation Act 204, which came into effect on 1 February 2015, mandatory community supervision was introduced for prisoners on short sentences. Following release at the halfway point, anyone serving short term custodial sentences is now subject to a licence period for the remainder of their sentence followed by an additional 'post-sentence supervision' period which will top up the supervision period to 12 months in total. This applies to people whose offence was committed after 1 February 2015, sentenced to a prison term of more than one day and less than 24 months and who will be 18 or over when released. (2) Offenders are counted as being under PSS if they are eligible (i.e., the sentence is custodial with length greater than one day and less than 24 months, the sentence date is on or after 1 February 2015, and they are aged 18 or over on the release date) and the end of period date occurs after the licence expiry date but before the PSS expiry date. Data sources and qualityThe Ministry of Justice does not hold the data in the way it has been asked and has calculated the answer (as explained in footnote 2) using data drawn from its administrative IT systems. As with any large-scale recording system and calculations made from it, data are subject to possible errors.Source: National Delius case management system.

Housing: Repossession Orders

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much was paid by the Legal Advice Agency to providers of the Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme in financial years (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20, (c) 2020-21, (d) 2021-22, and (e) 2022-23.

Mike Freer: Legal aid expenditure under the Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme since 2013 is published as part of the Legal Aid Agency’s quarterly statistics at table 1.2 ‘Civil Legal Aid Summary’.

Courts: Law Reporting

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he is taking steps to reduce the cost of crown court transcripts for victims of serious crime.

Mike Freer: The Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunals Service continue to seek ways to reduce the fees that victims are required to pay to obtain transcripts in criminal proceedings. In particular, we will explore how technology can be used to reduce the costs of transcription, with a view to passing on the savings to parties. Victims can apply to the court for permission to listen to the audio recording of the hearing at a suitable court location, free of charge and at judicial discretion. In certain serious criminal cases, a copy of the Sentencing Remarks may be made available to the public free of charge at the judge’s discretion

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

Renewable Energy: Mid Bedfordshire

Alistair Strathern: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding for renewable energy projects in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.

Graham Stuart: The Government has provided significant additional funding for renewable energy projects this autumn. Provisions include support via the next Contracts for Difference Allocation Round, funding for manufacturing for Windfarms and Networks and investment tax measures. Grant funding for renewable innovation or community-based renewable schemes is open for both local authorities and private investors to bid on. The Government encourages projects in Mid Bedfordshire to apply for these schemes as relevant to their proposals.

Cement: Carbon Emissions

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps she plans to take to incentivise the development of low-carbon cement technologies.

Graham Stuart: Phase 2 of the Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator (IEEA) supported projects to develop energy and resource efficiency technology in cement, worth a total of £720,000 in grant funding. Over £13 million in funding has been awarded from UKRI’s Innovate Transforming Foundation Industry Challenge for decarbonisation projects in the cement sector, including over £2.6m to Cemex to look at the valorization of contaminated waste glass to produce low carbon cements at its Rugby plant. The Department for Energy security and Net Zero is also undertaking research to explore barriers and opportunities for the adoption of low carbon, resource efficient materials in the construction sector.

Cement: Carbon Emissions

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on funding to support the development of the low-carbon cement sector.

Graham Stuart: My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State regularly discusses a range of issues with my Rt hon Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer. Carbon Capture Usage and Storage will be crucial for decarbonisation of industries, such as cement, which otherwise lack viable alternatives to achieve deep decarbonisation. CCUS and low carbon hydrogen are vital to transforming these sectors. In March, the Chancellor announced £20 billion investment in the early development of CCUS to help meet the Government’s climate commitments. The Government is taking forward the Hanson Padeswood Cement Works to proceed to negotiations for support under the Industrial Carbon Capture business model.

Cement: Carbon Emissions

Mr Alistair Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what discussions she has had with the Construction Industry Council on decarbonising the cement industry.

Graham Stuart: Officials have regular discussions with the Green Construction Board and with other bodies on a range of issues relating to the decarbonisation of cement. The Government is committed to exploring opportunities to decarbonise this critical foundation material and regularly engages with the Mineral Products Association and the sector to discuss the challenges and opportunities involved in decarbonisation, and potential ways forward. The Department for Business and Trade is working with the Construction Leadership Council, with a key priority being net zero and biodiversity, to support use of lower carbon materials and products such as cement and concrete in the construction sector.

Energy Company Obligation: Bedfordshire

Alistair Strathern: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many households have been awarded funding for energy efficiency installations under the ECO4 scheme in (a) Mid Bedfordshire constituency and (b) Bedfordshire.

Graham Stuart: ECO4 does not award funding to households, it is an obligation set by Government on large energy suppliers to install energy efficiency measures. To the end of June 2023 (the latest available data by parliamentary constituency), ECO4 has supported 10 households in the Mid Bedfordshire constituency and 1,241 households in Bedfordshire (Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Luton Local Authorities combined).

Methane: Pollution Control

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she plans to attend meetings on the matter of methane reduction at COP28.

Graham Stuart: The UK is fully supportive of rapid national and global action to reduce short-lived climate pollutants, including methane, as part of its commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. The Government put methane towards the top of the agenda at COP26, where the Global Methane Pledge was launched and the UK was one of the first countries to sign up. The Government welcomes the focus of COP28 on delivering action to reduce global methane emissions and will ensure the UK is represented at these discussions wherever possible, demonstrating its leadership and strong domestic track record.

Sizewell C Power Station

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make it her policy to sign affordable power purchase agreements with Sizewell C nuclear power station.

Andrew Bowie: The Government – with its co-shareholder, EDF – is developing the Sizewell C project on the basis of using the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model for nuclear. The Sizewell C Company’s trading methods under the RAB model would be regulated by Ofgem throughout the duration of the project’s licence. Ofgem’s principal objective is to protect the interests of all existing and future electricity consumers. New nuclear projects are crucial to help deliver a clean and secure electricity system that is also lower-cost to consumers. Government analysis has shown that Sizewell C is likely to result in value for money, by reducing costs to consumers in a low-carbon electricity system and improving the security of supply.

E.ON Next

Drew Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has had discussions with Ofgem about the level of compensation for customers from Eon Next for poor customer service.

Amanda Solloway: DESNZ ministers and officials meet regularly with Ofgem to discuss a range of issues relating to energy markets and consumers. As the independent regulator, Ofgem is responsible for ensuring licensed energy suppliers are complying with their rules. Details of Ofgem’s ongoing supplier compliance and enforcement activity, including individual decisions, are at this link https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/energy-policy-and-regulation/compliance-and-enforcement/retail-compliance-and-enforcement.

Fuels: Prices

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the difference between fuel prices (a) on and (b) not on motorways.

Amanda Solloway: I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave to him on 18 September to Question UIN 199076.

Fuels: Prices

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an estimate of the trend in the level of average fuel prices in the period between 25 October 2023 and 22 November 2023.

Amanda Solloway: The Department publishes average fuel prices for the UK on a weekly basis. The average road fuel prices on 20 November in the UK were 150.5 pence per litre for petrol and 158.4 pence per litre for diesel. Both have decreased week-on-week, by -0.6 percent and –0.7 percent respectively) over the past month.

Fuels: Prices

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what the average price for fuel was at (a) motorway stations and (b) other petrol and diesel stations in the latest period for which data is available.

Amanda Solloway: The Department publishes average fuel prices for the UK weekly, but the data is not collected at the granularity to determine prices for motorways compared to all other stations. The Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) road fuel market study found drivers without access to fuel cards are paying more at motorway service stations than elsewhere. This is due to limited competitive pressures and limited opportunities for customers to observe prices and shop around. Differences in ‘fixed’ and ‘variable’ costs, such as rent, staff wages and fuel volume sold also cause price variations.

Fuels: Prices

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has had recent discussions with fuel retailers on the level of fuel prices on motorways.

Amanda Solloway: I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave to him on 18 September to Question UIN 199075.

Energy: Debts

Dame Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent energy companies from attempting to recover debt that customers have inherited from previous tenants.

Amanda Solloway: Residential tenants are responsible for paying energy bills from the start date of their tenancy only. Incoming tenants will not be responsible for any unpaid energy bills from a previous tenancy and can request a new bill from their supplier to reflect this if they have been billed incorrectly. With regard to non-domestic tenants, Ofgem's recent non-domestic market review found some issues with changing of tenancies, including debt repayment issues from previous tenants. The Retail Energy Code Company is working on new rules in this area and aims to publish a solution overview and draft legal text by early December.

Energy: Meters

Drew Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of wide area network coverage on the availability of smart meters.

Amanda Solloway: The Data Communications Company (DCC) provides Wide Area Network (WAN) coverage for smart meters to at least 99.25% of premises across Great Britain. The DCC is also obligated under its licence conditions to explore solutions to increase the overall level of coverage even further. Ofgem is responsible for regulating the DCC against these obligations.

United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority: Workplace Pensions

Dame Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that people who have been employed by the United Kingdom Atom Engineering Authority receive their pension.

Andrew Bowie: Members of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) Pension Scheme, who currently work or previously worked for UKAEA, are entitled to receive their pension from the scheme based on the scheme rules in force. The scheme continues to pay pension benefits to eligible members. The UKAEA Pension Scheme is audited annually by the National Audit Office and the latest set of audited accounts can be found on the gov.uk publications website.

Energy Bills Rebate: Boats

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the Answer of 16 June 2023 to Question 189111 on Energy Bills Rebate: Boats, what recent progress her Department has made on establishing a method for boaters without permanent moorings to prove that their boat is their main or sole residence.

Amanda Solloway: The Government has launched the Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding for continuous cruisers (EBSS AF CC) which is providing a £600 energy support voucher to individuals who held a long-term Canal & River Trust licence and were registered as a continuous cruiser for a minimum of one day while the Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding was open (27 February – 31 May 2023). The first vouchers were provided from 6 September 2023 and the final vouchers will expire on 5 December 2023.

Energy: Prices

Keir Mather: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps his Department has taken to support rural households in Selby and Ainsty constituency with increases in the cost of energy.

Amanda Solloway: The outlook for energy prices has improved significantly since the last Autumn Statement. The Q1 2024 price cap of £1,928 has more than halved compared to the Q1 2023 price cap which stood at a high of £4,279, which is good news for households who have seen their energy prices fall. However, Government recognises some households still require extra support so vulnerable households will receive up to £900 in further Cost of Living Payments, £250-£600 through the Winter Fuel Payment, the £25 Cold Weather Payment and the annual £150 Warm Home Discount scheme which has been extended to 2025/26 and expanded to support more households.

Energy: Social Tariffs

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of launching a consultation on a social energy tariff.

Amanda Solloway: The outlook for energy prices has improved significantly since the 2022 Autumn Statement, with the Ofgem price cap falling 55% since its peak earlier this year. The Government is providing Cost of Living Payments to UK households on eligible means tested benefits, including over 6 million people across the UK eligible ‘extra-costs’ disability benefits’, for those who face wider affordability challenges. This is in addition to ongoing winter support payments such as the Warm Home Discount, Winter Fuel Payment and Cold Weather Payments Government will continue to monitor the situation and keep options under review.

Energy: Standing Charges

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will hold discussions with Ofgem on the potential merits of including standing charges for the non-domestic sector in its review of standing charges on energy bills, announced on 16 November 2023.

Amanda Solloway: Ofgem issued a Call for Input on standing charges on 16 November 2023. It includes an invitation to submit views by 19 January 2024 on the issues affecting standing charges in the non-domestic retail sector that Ofgem should consider further.

Energy Bills Rebate: Telephone Services

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate she has made of the number of telephone calls to the contact centre for help with the Energy Bill Support Alternative Funding Scheme in the six months to March 2023.

Amanda Solloway: The Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding launched on 27 February 2023 and closed to new applications on 31 May 2023. The contact centre helpline launched on 1 February 2023, when the pilot phase began, and closed on 31 August 2023. The contact centre helpline received a total of 127,175 calls between 1 February and 31 August.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Veterinary Medicine

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when his Department plans to respond to the consultation entitled Review of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013, published on 2 February 2023.

Mark Spencer: Veterinary medicines play a vital role in protecting our animals’ health and welfare. Defra is updating the Veterinary Medicines Regulations in respect of Great Britain, to ensure the Regulations continue to be fit for purpose, and we consulted on these changes earlier this year. We are finalising the response to the consultation, where we will set out the changes we are taking forward. We are aware that there is significant interest in our proposed changes and we are taking our time to make sure we get it right.

Land Use

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish the Government’s land use framework for England; and with reference to the commitments in the Food Strategy published in June 2022, whether the framework will take account of the potential impacts of (a) the Sustainable Farming Incentive and (b) other environmental land management schemes.

Rebecca Pow: The Government will publish a Land Use Framework for England this year. The Framework will provide a long-term perspective on the land uses required to deliver growth, Net Zero, climate change adaptation, nature recovery, food security, and economic infrastructure. Our work preparing the Framework is taking a broad range of factors into account, including the Sustainable Farming Incentive and other environmental land management schemes.

Bluetongue Disease

Dr Neil Hudson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the case of bluetongue virus in a cow in Kent on (a) biosecurity and (b) animal health.

Mark Spencer: Bluetongue is an exotic notifiable disease of ruminants (cattle, sheep, deer and goats) and camelids (llamas and alpacas). It is caused by a virus that is spread by biting midges. It does not affect people or food safety and cannot be spread in meat or milk. Defra's approach to bluetongue disease is based on the latest scientific evidence and veterinary advice and is set out in the GB Bluetongue Virus Disease Control Strategy, supported by the Contingency plan for exotic notifiable diseases of animals in England. These plans are in line with international standards of best practice for disease control.Defra and Animal and Plant Health Agency officials took immediate action to safeguard animal health and prevent potential spread from the single infected cow: the animal which tested positive for Bluetongue serotype 3 (BTV3) was humanely culled and a 10km Temporary Control Zone (TCZ) has been put in place around the affected premises. Within the TCZ, a range of controls are in place to prevent potential spread of disease, including restrictions on the movement of susceptible animals, except under licence. A veterinary investigation and surveillance are underway to consider the origin of the disease and check for potential spread. There is no authorised vaccine for BTV3 so good biosecurity practices are essential - we are working with industry representatives to provide keepers with advice on how they can protect their animals from bluetongue.

Nature Conservation

Sir Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has issued guidance for local councillors on what may constitute an imperative reason of overriding public interest under Part 6 of the Conservation of Habitats Regulations 2017.

Rebecca Pow: Defra guidance on how competent authorities, including local authorities, must decide whether a plan or project which affects a Habitats site can go ahead and how to consider imperative reasons of overriding public interest (IROPI) can be found on Gov.UK. Habitats regulations assessments: protecting a European site - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Game: Birds

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answers of 16 November 2023 to Question 1065 and 23 October 2023 to Question 202935 on Game: Birds, for what reasons the 37 licences were approved against the recommendations of Natural England.

Rebecca Pow: In reaching the decisions in question, the Secretary of State obtained advice from experts in DEFRA and other relevant bodies. In certain cases, it received site-specific information about highly relevant factors including species abundance, roost and pen locations, and release site locations. Ultimately, the relevant decision makers were satisfied – taking into account the totality of advice they received - that there were cogent reasons justifying a departure from Natural England’s advice.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Hunting

Alex Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of a ban on trail hunting on land owned by her Department.

Rebecca Pow: Since the introduction of the Act, many hunt organisations across the country have worked hard to adapt their activities towards trail hunting, which is intended to retain important traditions as part of the fabric of rural life without harming wildlife. The Government takes wildlife crime seriously. In 2022, Defra more than doubled its funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit from a total of £495,000 over the three previous years to £1.2 million for the three-year period of 2022-25. The Government will not amend the Hunting Act.

Animals: Exports

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Leader of the House on when a Bill to ban live animal exports will be introduced.

Mark Spencer: The Secretary of State has regular discussions with the Leader of the House on a range of issues. We are determined to deliver our manifesto commitment on live exports. We will bring forward the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill in due course.

Northern Ireland Office

British Medical Association: Northern Ireland

Carla Lockhart: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether he has had recent discussions with the British Medical Association Northern Ireland in the last 12 months.

Mr Steve Baker: The Secretary of State has been corresponding with the BMA and understands their frustration over a pay award for healthcare professionals. The UK Government has no authority to negotiate pay in Northern Ireland. This is a devolved matter for the Northern Ireland Department of Health. It remains the Government’s top priority to see the Executive restored with the support of all parties and for locally accountable political leaders to take fundamental decisions on public services and deliver better outcomes for the people of Northern Ireland.

Women and Equalities

Veganism: Catering

Patrick Grady: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the Vegan Society's report entitled Catering for Everyone: How far are councils catering for vegans, published in September 2023.

Stuart Andrew: I refer the Honourable Member to my response to UIN 1516 on 21 November 2023.

Church Commissioners

Church of England: Gaza and Israel

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Anglican diocese of Jerusalem is taking to help people impacted by the conflict in Israel and Gaza.

Andrew Selous: I am only able to answer on behalf of the National Church Institutions of the Church of England, and cannot on behalf of the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem.One of the significant contributions the Anglican Church makes as a global body is in the provision of healthcare. The Church of England is supporting the Diocese of Jerusalem’s request to launch a financial appeal to support the work of the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza. More information is here: https://j-diocese.org/wordpress/2023/10/24/joint-gaza-appeal-letter-from-the-most-revds-hosam-naoum-and-justin-welby-the-anglican-archbishop-in-jerusalem-and-the-archbishop-of-canterbury/Bishops in the House of Lords have committed to continuing to raise issues with His Majesty’s Government around the treatment of the Christian community in Israel, Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.The Archbishop of Canterbury paid a pastoral visit to the Diocese of Jerusalem on the 19th of October where he met with Christian and Jewish leaders in both Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. He also met with families affected by the attacks on the 7th October. More details of the visit can be found here: https://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/news/news-and-statements/archbishop-canterbury-arrives-jerusalem-pastoral-visit-anglican-church#:~:text=The%20Archbishop%20of%20Canterbury%20has%20begun%20a%20pastoral,Archbishop%20in%20Jerusalem%2C%20the%20Most%20Revd%20Hosam%20Naoum.Subsequently, the Archbishop spoke in a special debate in the House of Lords, and the House of Bishops released a joint statement, which can be read here: https://www.churchofengland.org/media-and-news/press-releases/house-bishops-oct-30-nov-1-2023The Archbishop of Canterbury also addressed the conflict in his presidential address to the November meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England, which also included a pastoral message from the Archbishop of Jerusalem. You can read the presidential address here: https://www.churchofengland.org/media-and-news/press-releases/archbishops-presidential-address-synod The Archbishop of Jerusalem’s speech is available here: https://www.churchofengland.org/media-and-news/press-releases/archbishop-jerusalem-addresses-synod-call-ceasefire-and-plea-peace

Leader of the House

House of Lords: Accountability

Sir Greg Knight: To ask the Leader of the House, if she will bring forward proposals to implement the recommendations in the Third Report of the House of Commons Procedure Committee of Session 2009-10 on Accountability to the House of Commons of Secretaries of State in the House of Lords, HC496, which was published on 22 March 2010.

Penny Mordaunt: The Procedure Committee has announced an inquiry into this issue and it would not be appropriate for me to pre-empt the conclusions of that inquiry.